The distraught mother of a woman killed by a drunk driver who fled from police at 100mph says she will campaign “until her last breath” to stop people like him getting behind the wheel again.
Kitchen designer Lillie Clack, 22, was one of six squeezed into Charlie Hilton’s overloaded Mercedes when it hit a tree, flipped over and burst into flames in the early hours of Christmas Day 2021.
Residents in Beeches Avenue, Carshalton grabbed fire extinguishers and rushed to help after the south London crash but Miss Clack suffered catastrophic head and chest injuries.
Her mother Debbie fears remorseless Hilton, then 25 - who has 11 previous convictions, including four now for drink-driving - will one day be able to reapply for his licence.
Calling for “Lillie’s Law” to secure lifetime bans for those found guilty of causing death or serious injury, she told the Standard knowing Hilton could never kill again would be the “tinniest solace” after losing her daughter.
Dental nurse Mrs Clack, from Morden, said tearfully: “I feel sick. He’s shown no remorse. He sat in court looking smug and never took any opportunity to say sorry.
“If Hilton had picked up a gun and shot Lillie or stabbed her with a knife, it would have gone down as murder.
“But the law doesn’t see it that way. For him to pick his car keys up after that amount of alcohol in his system, I believe that is still the same as murdering someone.
“Hilton already had three drink-drive convictions at the age of 23. So now he has four and a death and yet will be allowed to legally drive again. A life ban would be the tinniest, tinniest solace - to know his life has changed and he’s not carrying on as normal.”
She also feels insulted that none of Hilton’s parents have been in touch to offer sympathy, adding: “One mother to another mother at least, yes she wasn’t driving the car that night, she can’t control her son, but to put a letter together and tell me how sorry she is or a bunch of flowers, that’s all it would have taken, just to acknowledge my daughter.”
Last week, a coroner ruled Miss Clack was unlawfully killed as a result of Hilton’s gross negligence in evading police as passengers inside the car borrowed from his mother begged him to stop.
Miss Clack and friends were returning from Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland attraction. They visited a pub in Morden before accepting a lift home from Hilton, who lived on a caravan park in Tadworth, Surrey.
In February 2023, he was jailed at the Old Bailey for 10 years and six months after pleading guilty to causing Miss Clack’s death by dangerous driving, three counts of causing serious injury, failing to stop when directed and driving above the alcohol limit.
Hilton was also disqualified from driving for five years after his release from prison.
Mrs Clack is satisfied with the inquest’s unlawful killing verdict but says she cannot unhear some of the harrowing evidence.
“The only ‘win’ for me will be to have Lillie back,” she said. “I’m in a nightmare you don’t even want to think about. You try and find a new way of coping every day.
“I’ll always have unanswered questions – why did she get in that car? Why didn’t she ring me? Why didn’t he stop?
“The only person who can answer that is Lillie and when I meet her at Heaven’s door, that’s the first thing I will ask after I give her the biggest squeeze in the world.”
Mrs Clack described her popular, hard-working daughter as “absolutely amazing” and “the kindest, sweetest and loving child”.
As a teenager, she had brought joy to children’s parties when she dressed as Disney princesses Cinderella and Elsa. During lockdown, her workplace closed and she joined Sainsbury’s as a delivery driver.
“Lillie was generous, she flourished at school, and was streetwise. She knew what she wanted in life - the big house, children, holidays - and that she would go far. If it wasn’t for Hilton, she would have had it.”
Mrs Clack’s sister Donna Barnham wept: “There’s little I can do to help Debbie other than support her.
“The one thing she needs, I can’t give her. It breaks our hearts. We all love Lillie.”
Miss Clack was only allowed to go into central London that fateful Christmas Eve at the last minute as her family always enjoyed the festive period together.
When she realised she’d forgot her ID, Miss Clack started making her way home on the train.
She bumped into a friend who knew Hilton and accepted a lift part of the way.
Hilton had been told by his passengers – including Miss Clack’s boyfriend Jack Watson and best friend Delia Casey - that a police vehicle had turned its blue lights on behind them and was indicating for him to stop, the inquest heard.
Instead, he sped up and was driving so fast that the passengers bumped their head on the roof of the car as they were pursued.
At one point Sergeant Alexander Gill said his police car was doing 90mph in a 40mph zone and Hilton’s Mercedes was “greatly getting away”.
The Metropolitan Police called off the chase, which lasted about three-and-a-half minutes, when they lost sight of the Mercedes.
Miss Clack’s brother Michael said Christmas, a time of joy for many families, is now painful for theirs.
In a statement read on his behalf, he said: “I will never forgive Charlie Hilton for what he did to Lillie as he has ruined my life and the life of my family.”
A memorial tea room the family set up in Merton and Sutton cemetery, called Lillie’s in the Garden, recently won a prestigious award.
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