A drunken soldier who killed two promising teenage athletes on a training run by crashing his car into them on a pedestrian crossing has been jailed for six years.



Michael Casey, 24, was over the drink-drive limit after drinking with colleagues when he killed Stacey Burrows, 16, and Lucy Pygott, 17.

A court heard he was distracted by vomit in his black Ford Focus left by a colleague he had earlier given a lift home.



As he was sentenced to six years, which should see him eligible for release on licence after three years, Burrow’s mother, Helen Burrows, cried out from the public gallery: “I do not get my daughter back in three years, do I?”



Casey, of 4 Rifles, from Tottenham, north London, did not see the red light at the crossing near his barracks in Aldershot, Hampshire, before the collision on 8 November. He pleaded guilty to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving. He was also disqualified from driving for 10 years.



Pygott, from Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, had won a 3,000m bronze medal at the European Youth Championships in July. Burrows, from Farnborough, was the Hampshire under-17 3,000m champion. Both were members of Aldershot, Farnham and District Athletic Club.



In a victim impact statement read out at Winchester crown court, Lucy’s mother, Lisa Pygott, said: “Mr Casey has broken our precious family, we are lost without Lucy.



“The British army trains soldiers to kill. Mr Casey killed with his loaded weapon of a hot hatch car.”



She described her daughter as “strikingly beautiful” and “a truly extraordinary girl, in appearance, achievement, personality and potential”. She was “a role model” who trained hard and “ran clean” and was so popular 700 people attended her funeral.



Referring to Lucy’s athletic success, which included representing Team GB, she added: “Mr Casey has robbed this country of medals, at what level we will now never know”.



Michael Casey, who has been jailed for six years for ploughing into two teenagers after drinking with colleagues. Photograph: Ben Mitchell/PA

Describing seeing her daughter’s body after the accident, she said: “That image traumatises me, it will stay with me until I die. No parent should ever have to see their innocent blameless child pointlessly killed. Our lives are bleak and dark without her.”



Burrow’s father, Lee, described how he had dropped his daughter off for a training session with Aldershot, Farnham and District Athletic Club when he heard the impact of the crash.



“I heard a loud bang and screams and ran down the steps frantically looking for Stacey only to be stopped by one of the parents who told me ‘It’s Stacey.’



“Then I saw Stacey lying in the road with people trying to help her. I felt I died with Stacey that night. I cried with fear and I froze with shock”.



He added: “We just miss her so much it’s painful.”



Judge Keith Cutler praised the families for their “heart-rending and harrowing accounts of loss and pain”. He added: “No sentence I can pass can bring Lucy and Stacey back.”

Casey had spent three hours at a colleague’s leaving do in a pub in Aldershot on the day of the crash. He admitted in a police interview to drinking three or four pints of lager as well as a two-pint pitcher of a cocktail called Godfather, which contained three 25ml shots of Jack Daniel’s and the same amount of Disaronno Amaretto.

He gave a breath test at the scene of 38mcg of alcohol in 100ml of blood, but a back calculation meant he would have been at 46mcg at the time of the crash, prosecutor Kerry Maylin said. The legal limit is 35mcg.



He was driving at 40-49mph in the 30mph zone. The impact carried Lucy 30 metres and Stacey 45 metres before they were thrown to the ground.



After the incident, Casey told a witness: “What have I done? I was driving down the road and my mate had been sick in my car, so I was looking down on the passenger side, the next thing I knew the lights were red and I hit the girls. What have I done?”



James Newton-Price, mitigating for Casey, said his army career, which had included a six-month tour of Afghanistan, was now over as a result. He said Casey accepted full responsibility for the deaths.



In a statement to the families read by his solicitor, Casey said: “I cannot even imagine the pain and suffering you are going through. I will never forgive myself for my actions which resulted in myself taking the lives of your daughters. I am truly sorry.”