POLICE say they were baffled as to why a teenager described as a 'quiet lad' with no history of getting into trouble came to die in a stolen car.

They are trying to discover why Liam Richardson, a well thought of 13-year-old from a respectable family, was in the silver Vauxhall Astra that careered out of control, overturned and crashed into a fence on Thursday night.

The youngster, an Army Cadet Force member, was one of four teenagers in the car that had been stolen from outside a house in Ferryhill about 45 minutes before the crash.

Not one of the four occupants inside the car was old enough to drive.

The driver lost control on a hump in the road near a disused railway crossing in West Cornforth.

The car took off - travelling 65ft through the air - before overturning and crashing through a boundary fence bordering a scrapyard.

Liam died at the scene from multiple injuries. The three other occupants, aged 13, 14 and 16, initially fled the scene of the crash, but were later traced.

The 13 and 16-year-olds, who were unhurt, were arrested, interviewed and released on police bail.

On Tuesday, the 14-year-old was still being treated in Middlesbrough General Hospital for a serious hand injury. He had been spoken to by police but not formally interviewed.

Liam lived with his mother Angela, stepfather Gary, and younger brother Ben, in Raby Road, Ferryhill.

Earlier in the evening, the family had phoned police because they did not know where Liam was and were worried.

His 19-year-old brother, David, is a serving soldier in the Royal Mechanical Engineers in Hampshire and has been given leave to travel back to the North-East. Liam's family were too upset to speak about the tragedy.

Pupils at Spennymoor Comprehensive School, where Liam was a pupil, held a special assembly in his memory on Friday.

Headteacher Ken Hall said: "Liam had recently joined the school. However, in the short time he had been here, he had made new friends and they are particularly shocked at this tragic news.

"Our sympathies go out to Liam's family and our thoughts today are very much with them."