'This is all I have left': Brave Northampton mum shows lock of hair to hit-and-run couple who killed her daughter

A Northampton mum bravely took the stand in court this week to tell the couple who killed her daughter in a hit-and-run what they had done to her family.

Krystal Hamilton was knocked down and fatally injured late at night in February this year as she walked home from a trip to the shops on Wake Way. She died 10 days later of a fatal head injury. She was 20.

But Northampton Crown Court heard on Thursday (December 17) how after hitting Krystal, the first thoughts of the couple responsible - Kennedy Lucas, 24, and Vinny Guess, 28 - was to cover their own tracks.

Meanwhile, Lucas did nothing to help Krystal as she lay seriously hurt in the road. She instead told the concerned neighbours who arrived next that there "had been a hit and run" and left. She later lied to police and hid her car keys when officers came to her door.

At the couple's sentencing on Friday, Krystal's mum Anne-Marie Hamilton told her daughter's killers just how much damage they had caused through their selfish actions.

She took the stand and held up a lock of hair for the pair to see.

She said: "This is all I have left of my daughter.

"Watching my daughter fighting for her life in hospital was one of the hardest things I've ever done... Knowing there was nothing I could do, wishing for all the world that I could swap places with her to take away her pain. And the pain and frustration and rage of knowing the people responsible had driven away leaving her alone and in pain.

"She was only 20 but she was a fighter. She gave it her all. However in the early hours of February 16 she was taken for emergency surgery. Her heart was exhausted and it started to fail.

"Every day I wake up in a world where I will never see Krystal again, or see her perfect face and smile. I will never get to see her grow and become a beautiful bride. We will never share those precious mother-daughter memories together.

"As a family we still celebrated her 21st birthday in July. She was such a family-focused person and that is what she would have wanted.

"No sentence imposed today will ever bring Krystal back. We are already serving a life sentence."

During the brave statement, Lucas cringed away and did not look at Ms Hamilton.

Dozens of Krystal's family, friends and loved ones turned out at court to support her mum and see the couple go to prison.

The court also head how at the time of crash, Lucas had had at best nine driving lessons in the space of five years. The only reason she was driving that night was because she wanted to "show off" what she had learned to Guess in a set of unofficial lessons from a family member before Christmas - three months before.

Their infant son was in the back of the car. The car was also an automatic, which Lucas had never used before.

Lucas was jailed for 30 months for causing death by careless driving and perverting the course of justice. Guess was jailed for 20 months.