Two men have been jailed for what a judge called the ‘callous and morally repugnant’ roles they played in supplying a schoolgirl with MDMA shortly before her death.
Jason Burder, 29, and 28-year-old Adam King had pleaded guilty to drugs charges after being cleared of the gross negligence manslaughter of Megan Bannister, 16, part-way through their trial.
They were accused of causing her death by failing to get help while she lay dying in the back of their car as they drove around for hours looking for alcohol and contacting prostitutes.
The court heard they also gave her booze and ecstasy before sending humiliating Snapchat videos of her fitting.
Yesterday the pair were cleared of manslaughter after a judge ruled it was impossible to say whether their actions, though ‘morally repugnant’, had caused the schoolgirl’s death.
Two men have been jailed after admitting giving schoolgirl Megan Bannister, left and right, drugs and alcohol shortly before she died in the back of their car
Adam King (left) and Jay Burder (right) were accused of manslaughter after driving around ‘for hours looking for prostitutes’ while she fitted in the vehicle, but yesterday a judge cleared them because she said it was ‘impossible to say whether their actions contributed to her death’
The judge said Burder, left, and King, right, ‘targeted’ Megan and forced her to take more drugs than a ‘experienced user’ via ‘stealth or persuasion’
Megan’s mother Carol, pictured outside of the court, said the family’s hearts had been ‘utterly broken’ by her death in a statement
Megan’s father Tony, left and right, wrote the family statement which said they ‘could not express their numbness or grief’
Megan was discovered dead on the backseat of Burder’s Vauxhall Astra, only after he crashed the car near Enderby, Leicestershire, on the morning of May 14.
Sentencing seasoned drug-user and ‘pusher’ Burder on Wednesday for supplying Megan with MDMA, Mrs Justice Jefford said: ‘The fact of Megan’s death and your behaviour towards her, which I have already described as callous and morally repugnant, are matters I could and should take into account when sentencing.’
She added: ‘She was a much younger girl being induced to take more drugs than you, an experienced drug-user did.’
The judge said the men had ‘targeted’ the girl, both chipping into buy the drugs and then ‘by stealth or persuasion, you got her to take far more than either of you did’.
She described Burder’s role as ‘far more serious’, as it was he who then filmed the effects of MDMA on Megan in his bedroom, ‘broadcasting her suffering the effects of the drug on Snapchat’.
While Megan was still in his room, along with King, he sent a message pretending he had not seen the GCSE student, who had dreamed of becoming a midwife.
Megan, 16, was found on the back seat of the crashed car in Leicestershire and the court heard the men had previously taken Snapchat videos of her fitting
After being given ecstasy, she was driven around in Jason Burder’s Vauxhall Astra
Mrs Justice Jefford added: ‘You videoed her, shared images of her when she was clearly not in control.
‘You laughed at her and made unkind remarks about her.
‘Rather than care for her you dumped her in the back seat of your car and drove around with no concern for anyone other than yourself.’
She told Burder, of Leicester: ‘I am told you lost a baby. That is your personal tragedy and if anything makes worse your complete lack of remorse for what happened to Megan, and her family’s loss of a daughter.’
Departing from normal sentencing guidelines she handed Burder a hefty prison term, because of the ‘many aggravating factors’.
He was jailed for a total of eight-and-a-half years, after also pleading guilty to possession of MDMA found at the crash scene, two counts of supplying drugs to another woman, and a careless driving offence for his role in the road collision.
Turning to King, of Waltham Avenue, Leicester, who admitted being concerned in the supply of 2g of MDMA to Megan. the judge told him: ‘Everything I have said about the lack of care and concern shown to Megan by Jason Burder, applies equally to you.’
She jailed him for four-and-a-half years.
Burder (right) was jailed for eight-and-a-half years and was said to have a ‘complete lack of remorse’ while King (left) received a four-and-a-half year sentence
The judge praised Megan’s family, who sat throughout the trial listening to harrowing evidence, adding: ‘All their hopes for Megan’s future have been taken from her parents and siblings, including her twin brother.’
The trial at Birmingham Crown Court had heard that Burder told his mother shortly before 7.50am the men were taking Megan home, but instead the ‘indifferent’ pair drove around with the young girl, who was left covered with a coat.
Burder and King, both from Leicester, went on trial at Birmingham Crown Court two weeks ago charged with gross negligence manslaughter.
They were accused of spiking Megan’s drink with ecstasy and strangling her.
Following lengthy legal argument at Birmingham Crown Court yesterday, Mrs Justice Jefford ruled that Burder and King had no case to answer.
She said it was impossible to establish when Megan died and whether seeking medical attention earlier would have saved her.
The trial was told Burder and King stopped to buy beer after putting Megan in the back of the Vauxhall Astra.
Although Burder told his mother they were taking Megan home, they drove her around from shortly before 7.50am until the crash – in which a biker suffered a broken pelvis – at about 11.40am.
An off-duty nurse who was one of the first on the scene after the crash, said Burder and King ‘must have known’ that Megan, who was half-covered by a coat and had no obvious crash injuries, was dead.
The GCSE student, who wanted to be a midwife, knew Burder – whose Facebook profile falsely gave his age as 21 – through social media but only met him in person two days before her death.
The pair did admit supplying ecstasy to Megan and Burder pleaded guilty to driving without due and attention.
Explaining her reasons for instructing jurors to acquit both defendants of manslaughter, judge Mrs Justice Jefford said: ‘Over the past few days, in your absence, I have heard legal argument in relation to the manslaughter charge.
The pair, pictured in a court sketch, were said to have done nothing to help Megan
‘It is open to the defendants to submit at the close of the prosecution case, that if you take the prosecution’s case at its highest you could not properly be sure of the defendant’s guilt.
‘I have concluded that as a matter of law there is no case to answer on the manslaughter charge and it is therefore my duty to instruct you to enter a not guilty verdict against both defendants.’
In a written ruling explaining her decision, the judge said there was no evidence on which a jury could be sure that failing to seek assistance for Megan – however ‘morally repugnant’ it might be – had caused her death.
Following the car crash, efforts were made to revive Megan, but witnesses said they believed she was already dead as her ‘lips were blue and she was showing no signs of life’. A pathologist later concluded that she had not died in the crash.
The precise cause of death was ‘unascertained’, but tests found a ‘massive difference in toxicity levels’ between Megan and the two men, said Miranda Moore, prosecuting.
Pathologist Dr Frances Hollingbury told the court the cause of death was either ecstasy toxicity, manual strangulation or a combination of the two.
‘The silence in our lives is deafening’: Schoolgirl’s family’s heartbreaking statement
A statement read out in court on behalf of Megan’s family said: ‘Megan’s life was cruelly taken away from her.
‘She was our beautiful, talented and loving daughter. Our hearts have been utterly broken by her death.’
A statement written by Megan’s father Tony, 54, said: ‘Not one day goes by without us thinking about her.
‘She was the heart of our family. We will never forget the day the police gave us the harrowing news.
‘We could not believe Megan had been taken away from us. We did not sleep. We desperately wanted to see Megan again.
‘All Megan ever wanted to do was help others. She had her heart set on becoming a midwife. Knowing how determined she was we know she would have achieved that dream.
‘The thought of life without Megan is impossible to imagine. I can’t express in words our numbness and grief.
‘The silence in our lives without Megan is deafening.’