"Serious failings" found in investigation into fatal Fermanagh crash

By PA Reporter

A coroner investigating a road crash that killed two schoolchildren has referred the case to prosecutors after raising concern that the phone call log of the driver was illegally altered.

Identifying "serious failings" in the police investigation of the collision that claimed the lives of Debbie Whyte, 14, and Nathan Gault, 15, coroner Suzanne Anderson said she had been unable to find a "satisfactory explanation" as to why two outgoing calls had apparently been deleted from the driver's phone.

Driver Yvonne Seaman, who knocked down the two pupils as they walked along a dark country road near Florencecourt, Co Fermanagh, in November 2008, said she made two missed calls to her sister after pulling off the road and parking up minutes before the crash.

But logs of the calls were not on her phone when later examined by police.

Announcing her decision to refer the case to the Public Prosecution Service as she delivered her inquest findings at Belfast Coroner's Court, Ms Anderson said: "It would appear that someone has deleted them (the two calls) and in doing so it would appear that an offence has been committed."

Solicitor Matthew McKenna with the family of Debbie Whyte.

The family's lawyer's been speaking outside court.