The mother of a teenager killed alongside four others in a horrific crash has said the driver jailed over the tragedy should be allowed back on the road.
Ewan Macpherson was handed a “lenient” 40-month prison sentence for causing the deaths of five people in a collision on the A85 Perth-Crieff road in January 2007. He was also disqualified from driving for 10 years.
On Monday, the 28-year-old returned to the High Court in Edinburgh and pleaded for his licence to be restored.
Lord Brailsford, the judge who originally jailed him, agreed that Macpherson could now apply for a new provisional licence after he argued that driving would help his fledgling golf career. Macpherson will need to sit an extended test before he can get behind the wheel again.
Tamara Webster, whose 19-year-old daughter Tanya died in the crash, last night gave her blessing to Macpherson’s legal challenge.
Speaking publicly for the first time since the accident, Mrs Webster, from Crieff, said: “I’m not going to lie, it is very upsetting. But then there’s nothing anyone can say or do that is going to bring them back.
“There’s no point in me being angry at him. He is entitled to get on with his life.”
She said: “I would hope that once he gets his licence back it will give us some kind of closure. And that’s all we want to put this behind us.”
Macpherson was the sole survivor of the crash which claimed the lives of his girlfriend and four other people, including three members of the same family.
Tragedy struck when he pulled out to overtake on a blind summit on the A85 Perth to Crieff road, near Methven. His Vauxhall Corsa collided with an oncoming Honda Civic and burst into flames.
Tanya and her friend Donna Miller, both 19, were passengers in Macpherson’s vehicle and died instantly.
The three other victims in the Honda were William Melville, 67, his wife Allison, 60, and their son William, 33, of Methven.
Macpherson was later sentenced to 40 months’ imprisonment and banned from the road for 10 years.
Appearing before Lord Brailsford, the man who originally jailed him, on Monday the 28-year-old said he had finished his training as a golf professional and had graduated earlier this year.
Representing himself, he said most of his work was in his home town of Auchterarder, but competitions could take him to all corners of Britain.
“I am going to try to get involved more within the local schools,” he said. “I would need to drive to them. I am looking to try to play more golf next year as well.”
Macpherson, of Abbey Park, Auchterarder, had tried and failed to have his licence returned last year.
Lord Brailsford told him: “Plainly, you have been of good character and have not been in any further trouble since then.”
He said that Macpherson would have to sit an extended test.
“Until you have passed that, you won’t get your licence back,” he told him.
Macpherson was jailed at the same court in 2008. At the time, Lord Brailsford said he had been persuaded to give him the most lenient sentence possible, after taking into account a testimonial letter written by Tamara Webster.
The letter, he said, showed a “tremendous amount of compassion”.
Speaking on Monday. Mrs Webster said: “I said in the letter that I believed he had made a mistake that night and I still believe that.”
Lord Brailsford said it was “difficult to imagine a more tragic case”.