A 24-YEAR-OLD drink-driver has been sentenced to 10 years in jail after killing two people and leaving a 12-year-old girl in a coma.
Maidstone Crown Court was told how Stefan Stanko, of West Street, Gravesend, was over the drink-drive limit when he ploughed into a group of friends in Ashford on September 27 last year.
Stanko, a Slovenian, had been drinking whiskey and cherry brandy throughout the day at a barbeque.
The court was told how a friend hid his car keys after Stanko’s brother-in-law said he was “too drunk”.
But Stanko spent the evening searching for them and when he found them shortly after midnight he drove off in his silver Nissan Primera.
The group of six people were walking home following a night out at a sports and social club.
CCTV footage showed a car mounting the pavement by a fish and chip shop a split second before hitting the group.
Denise Head, 49, died at the scene and Brian Moon, 67, died in hospital from his injuries.
Rosie Brown, 12, is now in a rehabilitation unit where she remains in a coma with brain damage.
Stanko initially told police the car had been stolen earlier that night after he left the keys in the ignition when he went into an off-licence.
He later admitted driving the car, claiming he had no recollection of the accident, but admitting: "It must have been me.”
Judge Jeremy Gold told him: “You by your actions caused carnage. There can be no dispute that this is a tragic case.”
In a joint statement the families of the victims said: "Our lives have been turned upside-down by the actions of Stefan Stanko.
"No sentence, however many years, will ever give us back what we have lost.”
Stanko had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing death by dangerous driving, dangerous driving, excess breath alcohol and failing to stop and report an accident.
He was also disqualified from driving for 10 years.
