Death crash man sent back to prison again

A career criminal once jailed for causing the death of a teenage boy by dangerous driving was today back behind bars.

Devon Harrison, aged 33, was starting a three-year jail sentence after admitting burgling a house in Wolverhampton.

Harrison has been in and out of prison since his first crime in 1990 at the age of 12, a judge heard.

He has committed 36 offences over 21 years including, in 1997, causing the death of 14-year-old John Gough by dangerous driving in Willenhall on New Year's Day for which he was sent to youth custody.

Prosecutor Mr David Lees told Wolverhampton Crown court yesterday how Harrison was spotted by police walking along a street near the burgled Parkfield Road house on January 12 with a laptop in a bucket.

He said: "Police searched him and found a number of items including the laptop, a bank card, cash and a ring.

"He said he saw an open window and climbed in."

The criminal record of Harrison, of Chester Street, Whitmore Reans, Wolverhampton, includes more than a dozen burglaries.

He was most recently jailed for 30 months in October 2008 for burglary but released on licence in January last year, Mr Lees told the court.

Defending, Mr Jon Rowe said: "He is angry with himself. This was an opportunist offence and all the goods that were stolen were recovered.

"He had been drug-free for a period but relapsed and was too proud to admit it to his family."

Judge Michael Challinor told Harrison: "It is a great shame someone with your considerable intelligence and intellect has to waste your life in custody."

Harrison was tried at Wolverhampton Crown Court in 1997 over the death of John Gough.

Judge John Warner sentenced the then 20-year-old to two years in youth custody, consecutive to four-and-a-half-years he was already serving for robbery.

Harrison had claimed the victim, a passenger in the car, was driving at the time. He was killed when the stolen Vauxhall Astra the pair were in smashed into a lamp post after skidding in Fibbersley, Willenhall.

Harrison drove at up to 50mph as police pursued the car into Willenhall from Wolverhampton.