A FATHER last night paid tribute to his "wonderful daughter and good mate" who was killed by a banned driver high on a cocktail of drink and drugs.

Bruce Davis spoke for the first time about the crash that claimed the life of his 20-year-old daughter, Katharine.

He told The Northern Echo: "This is just a tragedy for everyone involved."

Mr Davis refused to blame driver Lee Fitzgerald, who was this week jailed for five years for what a judge described as "every parent's nightmare".

Fitzgerald, 25, from Hartlepool, was almost double the legal drink-drive limit and had taken cocaine and ecstasy before getting behind the wheel of a friend's Rover 216GTi.

He gave a lift to Katharine and a work colleague who had been out celebrating the call centre trainee's first pay packet, and crashed at high-speed as the car was being followed by police.

Mr Davis, 47, a recruitment consultant, said: "People describe losing a child as every parent's worst nightmare, but I have never had any kind of nightmares as bad as this.

"It is worse than the worst nightmare I have ever had, but we are trying to get on with life without resentment and hate because there is no point adding those to the grief we feel.

"I am not the sort of person who is out for vengeance. This was an accident.

"It is tragic that somebody else has lost five years of their life. It doesn't help to put people in jail."

South Africa-born Mr Davis moved to Hartlepool from Eaglescliffe, near Stockton, so his family would be nearer the yacht they had berthed at the town's marina.

Katharine sailed with her father, and had helped him bring the 36ft keel boat from Spain. They had also sailed off the coast of South Africa and the family were considering scattering Katharine's ashes in the Indian Ocean.

Mr Davis said: "She was my sailing crew, my mate. She was a pretty tough one. She was a strong kid, a good kid, a wonderful daughter.

"Life is precious and there are no second chances. There is no reversal.

"I can't begin to imagine the grief parents of murdered children must go through.

"Just reliving the final moments in my head is agony, and this was an accident - not a brutal act. It is enormously difficult to bear as it is, but if it was anything else I would not be able to cope with it.

"I keep a picture in my mind of her leaving that night, telling her she looked nice, giving her a hug. That's what I want to remember."