Teen Student Driver Who Killed His 3 Friends in Fatal Crash Sentenced to Prison: ‘Ruined Our Family’

Mar. 15, 2025

Jake Loy.Photo:Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty

Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty

A teenager has been sentenced to four years and eight months in prison after pleading guilty to killing his three friends in a high-speed vehicle collision.

Jake Loy, 19, was sentenced on Monday, Aug. 19, at Glasgow’s High Court In Scotland after crashing his car into a vehicle while driving with just a learner’s permit, per asentencing statementfrom the court. The March 2022 crash killed 16-year-old passengers Finlay Johns, Ian Cannon and Tyler Johnston.

Loy was 17 years old at the time when he took out his Honda Civic with his three friends and collided with a Honda CR-V going in the opposite direction on a country road shortly after midnight near Dumfries. The force of the collision caused his car to split in two, per the sentencing statement.

Loy was believed to have been driving over the road’s speed limit of 60mph at the time of the crash, perThe Independent.

Victims Finlay Johns, Ian Cannon and Tyler Johnston.Scotland Police

Scotland Police

Finlay’s brother Grant said after the sentencing, per theBBC, “No sentence could ever be enough, he’s taken away our brother, he’s ruined our family, he’s ripped our family to pieces."

The victim’s father, Alan Johns, told reporters outside the court he thought the sentence was “very lenient.”

“There are no winners, the sentencing is what we expected,” he said.

Donald Findlay KC, who defended Loy, said in court he had “no recollection” of the crash due to his head injury from the collision.

He told the court of his client, per the BBC, “It was very telling and quite moving when he said if he could take their place he would — he would rather it had been him.”

Finlay Johns' father, lan Johns, speaks to reporters outside Glasgow High Court.Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty

Findlay added that there was “very clear and strong evidence of survivor’s guilt”.

The court heard that one of the victims, Cannon, had sent a message in a group Snapchat before the crash about being “scared” of Loy’s driving. The court was told a boy in the same group chat as the teenagers saw the message Cannon had written.

“He was saying that he was scared because Jake Loy was swerving all over the place, that he was a terrible driver and he was flooring it,” he said, per the BBC.

Loy is banned from driving for eight years and he will have to pass an extended driving test before he drives again, thecourt heard on Friday, Aug. 16.

Jake Loy arriving at court.Andrew Milligan/PA Images via Getty

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“Your driving at the time of the collision formed part of a more prolonged and deliberate course of bad or aggressive driving with a disregard for the danger being caused to others,” the statement continued.

“The victim impact statements all bear witness to the terrible devastation you caused to the lives of their family members of those you injured."

source: people.com