A DRIVER who mowed down and killed a Liverpool student was sentenced to a 9½-year jail term yesterday.

David Gaskell, 21, ploughed into Andrew O'Neill after “bulldozing” through traffic while driving the wrong way down Dale Street.

Andrew was carried 40 metres by the stolen car, which investigators estimated was travelling at up to 50 miles per hour.

Moments before, it had been stopped by Merseyside Police on North John Street, but Gaskell mounted a pavement and managed to speed off again.

Liverpool Crown Court heard 20-year-old John Moores University student Andrew died just over an hour after the crash, at the Royal Hospital.

Gaskell, of Gwent Road, Everton, admitted causing death by dangerous driving in the November 27 crash.

At the hearing, he also pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking and driving while disqualified.

Andrew, who was originally from County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, would have celebrated his 21st birthday on January 10.

Paying tribute to his son, who was studying building surveying and was a dedicated hurling player, Brendan O’Neill, 45, said: “These lads took a young man just starting to go out and make a life for himself. He has been taken away.

“Nothing can replace Andrew.”

The Audi Q5 Gaskell was driving had been stolen two days before, though not by any of the car’s occupants. CCTV played in court showed the car driving first the right way along Dale Street, turning onto Castle Street, then Lord Street and onto North John Street.

Mr O’Neill also said: “From what I saw on the CCTV of the driving, if it hadn’t have been Andrew, it could have been someone else. And, truth be honest, he had absolutely no remorse for anything, even though he said he did.

“It makes you ask the question what’s life and what’s not life because those boys took a life. What’s murder and what’s not murder?

“I don’t want ‘sorry’ from them now. They have taken my Andrew away.”