A mum has described her heartbreak after her daughter was killed in a crash while on a night away with her boyfriend. Ellie Marsden, 20, and Ryan Duffy, 24, were found dead inside a Citroen Berlingo at around 7.30am on September 5, 2021.

Ellie’s mum said her family’s lives are “shattered without her”. The couple, both from Wigan, were on holiday when their vehicle left a country lane in darkness and hit a tree several miles from the village of Kings Meaburn, near Appleby-in-Westmorland, Cumbria.

An inquest was held yesterday (Tuesday, March 18), to find the cause of death. The Manchester Evening News reports it was found the van had been involved in a late-night chase with the police – and that this had contributed to their deaths.

In a heart-breaking statement, Ellie’s mum Kelly Kennedy said this finding had “vindicated all that I have been fighting for over the last three-and-a-half years”. “The officer’s pursuit of Ryan out of Appleby was a significant contributory factor in my daughter’s death,” she said.

“The daily pain we have had to endure ever since losing our beautiful daughter Ellie is crippling. No parent should have to go through losing a child and especially in such horrific circumstances.

“Ellie is and was the most loving, kind and caring daughter, who had her whole life ahead of her. She was more than just a daughter, she was my best friend and the best friend of her heartbroken sister Chloe. Our lives are completely shattered without her here in our arms and we will ache for her for the rest of our lives. Ellie, I love and miss you more than life, and me, your dad, your family and friends will ache for you for all eternity.”

The inquest heard the day before the collision, the couple had travelled to Appleby and booked into a hotel at the town’s historic castle for the night. Ryan had told the hotel manager: “I just want to make her happy with a night away” when checking in.

They left a nearby pub at 12.30am and drove along a main town road when they were spotted by PC Craig Stevenson, a standard response officer on patrol. An inquest heard how he decided to follow and monitor the vehicle’s movements, and watched as the driver went the wrong way along a one-way street.

The officer continued to follow and tried to stop the car to speak with the driver. His own Ford Transit vehicle data showed he repeatedly drove above the speed limit in Appleby and country roads to try and catch up with the Berlingo.

Both vehicles then turned on to a lane known as the Long Rigg and at that stage, PC Stevenson lost sight of the van. He stopped and sent a radio message to his control room. He was a mere 170 metres from where the crashed Berlingo was later found the jury heard.

“Just had a vehicle make off from me on the back roads from Appleby,” the officer reported, before turning around. He did not manage to log the registration number of the Berlingo, or the vehicle’s make. He told jurors the opportunity to turn on his blue lights to signal the van to pull over safely did not arise.

PC Stevenson confirmed he was trained to follow and stop vehicles but not to engage in any pursuit which, he explained, was a ‘high risk activity’ for any officer or people in a subject vehicle. As defined by the College of Policing policy, the officer did not believe he was involved in a ‘spontaneous pursuit’ at any stage.

This dictates that if a driver is aware of police presence, fails to stop, and a pursuit begins, a non-trained pursuit officer must immediately inform a control room and disengage. A jury concluded, on the balance of probabilities, that Ryan had become aware they were being followed while driving out of Appleby and took evasive action.

The 11-strong jury listened to evidence over the course of a week and concluded there were a number of factors which contributed to the deaths of Ryan and Ellie in the collision. One was excess alcohol, with a post-mortem reading from Ryan’s bloodstream showing he was between two and three times the legal drink-drive limit. Cocaine and ketamine were also found in his system.

Another factor, jurors found, was driver error, with Ryan, of Ashton-in-Makerfield, failing to negotiate a bend on which he crashed. A third factor was the fact that neither he nor Ellie, of Golborne, had been wearing seat belts.

And a fourth was PC Stevenson following the van. “On the balance of probabilities, the police officer was engaged in a spontaneous pursuit of Ryan, and this contributed to causing the crash,” concluded jurors.

Alice Wood of Farleys Solicitors, who represented Ellie’s family, said: “This is an extremely tragic death of a young couple. Their families have waited for over three and a half years for this inquest and have had to fight for the truth so that they can find out the full circumstances in which Ellie and Ryan died. The jury’s findings have confirmed the families’ suspicions that the pursuit by the officer was a contributing factor to the deaths and that the officer should have stopped following the vehicle earlier on.”

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