An early years assistant who killed her boyfriend and two other young men in a ‘horrendous’ high-speed crash has been jailed for less than four years.

Jorja Colville – whose sentence of three years, 10 months amounts to less than 16 months for each life she took – was told by a judge her driving had been ‘appallingly dangerous’.

Dressed in dark clothing and weeping throughout the hearing at the High Court in Stirling, she was also disqualified from driving for six years, 11 months.

Colville, from Stirling, was told she would have been jailed for five years but for her early guilty plea.

She was just 20 when she hit speeds of more than 92mph in her personal-reg Ford Focus on an undulating country road in the lead-up to the crash near the village of Dunmore, Stirlingshire, in July 2024.

Having taken a bend at speeds in excess of 85mph she lost control and crashed into a tree.

Her three passengers – boyfriend Reece Williams, 23, and two friends, Lewis Soden, 24, and Connor Page, 21 - were fatally injured.

Colville escaped with a broken shoulder and ribs but after the collision she was diagnosed with PTSD, anxiety and depression and has been receiving medication and therapy since the crash on the Moss Road.

Jorja Colville, 21,  has been jailed after she admitted dangerous driving and causing the death of three men in July 2024

The court heard yesterday the quartet had been on their way for dinner at around 6.15pm when they journey was cut short.

Judge Lady Ross told the now 21-year-old Colville: ‘For reasons that defy any understanding you were driving at a speed that was far too fast for the road and well in excess of the speed limit. You lost control and the result was catastrophic.’

She said a social enquiry report had suggested ‘anxiety and a sense of excitement’ might have contributed to her behaviour but added: ‘It is hard to see that behaviour as anything other than senseless and reckless and obviously dangerous.’

The court heard Colville had no memory of the incident and could offer no explanation why she was driving so fast, but was deeply remorseful.

Lady Ross said: ‘No sentence which I can impose will come anywhere close to matching the sense of loss experienced by those who are bereaved. The value of a human life is immeasurable and can in no way be reflected in the length of a sentence.’

Sounds of weeping from the public benches - where the bereaved families were sitting - filled the courtroom after Lady Ross said those killed were three ‘kind, hard-working and cheerful young men of strength and character’ with their lives ahead of them.

Colville shook with sobs as the sentence was pronounced, before she was handcuffed to a guard and led to cells.

Lady Ross told her: ‘When are in prison I encourage you to use your time wisely, and when you leave prison live your life well, purposefully and constructively - not just for your own sake but in memory of those who died.’