A driver who caused the death of three teens in a horror crash has been slammed by a victim’s mother after he dodged a second road ban. Robbie Gemmell was behind the wheel of pal Jenna Barbour’s Peugeot 206 when it careered into a brick wall in East Lothian.
Jenna, 18, was killed along with fellow passengers Joshua Stewart, 16, and David Armstrong, 15, in November 2013. Gemmell, then 16, got a four-year driving ban and unpaid work after admitting causing the trio’s deaths by driving without due care and attention.
Now 25, Gemmell was back in court last month, but escaped another ban despite pleading guilty to careless driving when he smashed into a roundabout. Joshua’s mother, Susan Stewart, condemned the sentence as “ridiculous” and said Gemmell was a “menace” who shouldn’t be allowed to drive.
The 58-year-old said: “When Robbie got his licence back, one of his relatives said on Facebook he’d learned his lesson and people should leave him alone. But he hasn’t learned anything. He’s still crashing cars.”
Gemmell appeared at Edinburgh Sheriff Court on December 14, 2022, after colliding with the roundabout just three miles from the spot where the trio died. He admitted driving without due care and attention at excessive speed and losing control of the vehicle at Thistly Cross Roundabout, near Dunbar, on April 16, 2021.
The vehicle overturned and Gemmell, from Dunbar, was injured. Sheriff Wendy Sheehan put eight penalty points on his licence and fined him £640.
Susan said: “He should’ve been banned from driving. After the deaths of three people, he should’ve got a lifetime ban. He’s either going to kill another driver, someone else in his car, or himself. The guy is a menace on the road.”
Back in 2013, Gemmell lost control of the Peugeot near Tyninghame and ploughed head-on into a wall. He initially told cops he was a front seat passenger and Jenna was driving, but broke down and confessed after a police probe proved he was lying.
Susan said: “Robbie has never given a statement about what happened. He’s never apologised to the families. My son made the decision to get in the car that night and it had consequences. What consequences has Robbie paid? Absolutely nothing. It’s a slap in the face.”
Susan struggled to continue working as a book-keeper following his death, and made the decision to leave the UK. She said: “Josh was an only child, an only grandchild, an only nephew. He was our life and when he died, I had nothing left.
"I was no longer working to put him through university or help him onto the property ladder. I lost a sense of purpose.
“My mother died two years after the crash and I think that was the cause - because she was heartbroken. My sister struggled to work because of panic attacks. Moving to Turkey seven years ago with my sister was a clean break.
"We both had PTSD, basically, and needed to get away although you can’t escape it. You think about it every day. I was fortunate to be able to move away from Dunbar so I’m not surrounded constantly by bad memories.”
Susan set up the Josh James Stewart Memorial Trophy in memory of her son, a keen rugby player, and it’s awarded annually to a youth player who showed commitment and dedication. She added: “Josh’s aim was to join the police when he was 21. He’d be 25 now. I see his friends posting on social media about getting engaged or having babies.
“You feel happy for them, but gutted too because you’ve missed out. You develop coping mechanisms and try to get on with life in Josh’s memory.”
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