by Chris Hunter

A rookie teenage motorist whose driving left a 15-year-old girl brain damaged has been handed just six points on her licence.

But 18-year-old driver Rhiannon Thomas says the devastating accident has also ruined her own life.

Thomas, of Beauworth Park, Maidstone, left sisters Nia and Bethany McCarthy - both pupils at Swadelands School in Lenham - with serious injuries when she lost control of her black Ford Fiesta.

Passengers Nia, 17 at the time, suffered a broken neck while 15-year-old Bethany came off far worse after the crash off the A20 at Charing last August.

She remains completely dependant on round-the-clock care and is unable to talk, walk or eat, and has to be fed through a tube in her stomach.

This week Thomas - who pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention - left court with a £200 fine and six points on her licence.

Thomas, who lost best friend Nia and the chance of a job as a care worker, said: "People think I'm just getting on with my life but I'm not.

"After the accident, when Nia stopped talking to me I just went into a daze for a while.

"I sort of got back on my feet with another job, but I just started to miss Nia and started drinking every day.

"I felt better when I was drunk because I didn't think about it."

She said she understood exactly why her friend had stopped contacting her.

"I don't want to upset her. I always look out for Nia, I'd do anything to help her and I still feel like that even though she doesn't want anything to do with me."

Approached by the Kent Messenger, Thomas did not purposefully seek sympathy but says she has been left traumatised by events.

"It makes me feel sick thinking about what happened.

"As long as Nia and Beth get better, that's the only thing that matters."

At Canterbury Magistrates' Court, Evelyn Hawkins, prosecuting, said Thomas could offer no real explanation for the crash, adding: "She said she was driving at quite a fast speed.

"She inexplicably lost control of the vehicle, probably due to driving too fast and not maintaining control of the car."

Mrs Hawkins said Nia, who remembered little about the crash, received surgery to her fractured vertebrae, while her younger sister suffered two strokes, liver lacerations, broken ribs and a broken collar bone.

Thomas, who works in Walderslade, cried in the dock when the evidence was read out.

Max Reeves, defending, said what happened was "tragic" but added: "From a legal point of view we're looking at the culpability of Miss Thomas' driving and any mistakes she may have made.

"She does remember being in the car and her friend Nia saw it going slightly off course and shouted at her to stop.

"It was a case of her being an inexperienced driver and not being able to correct her driving."

"The guilt she feels is enormous," he added. "She wants justice for Bethany suffering these horrific injuries as much as anybody."

Thomas must also pay £85 costs and a £15 victim surcharge.

Compensation will be dealt with by insurance companies.

Commenting on the sentence, Nia and Bethany's cousin Tessa Beasley, 23, said: "It doesn't quite seem enough.

"Obviously it's never going to do it justice in the family's eyes."

The sisters' mother Tracey McCarthy did not want to comment on the case but said the crash had turned their lives upside down.

Mrs McCarthy had to give up her job at Marley Plumbing and Drainage in Lenham and moved to live with Bethany, known affectionately as Bessie, at a Children's Trust unit which cares for her at Tadworth in Surrey,

She said: "Our lives are devastated because of this. She can't eat, she can't talk, she can't walk, she can't laugh, she can't cry.

"Bethany played football and was taking hair and beauty at school. She was very popular.

"She gets hundreds of messages on her Facebook page every day. She was a lovely little girl.

"She still is but we've got a long way to go yet before she's back.

"She makes little steps of recovery but the unfortunate thing is we just don't know how far she will progress."