A “SELFISH” drink and drug driver killed a 17-year-old girl just hours after meeting her in a nightclub.

Keilan Roberts, 22, lost control of his Skoda Octavia on a mountain road when Chloe Hayman was a front seat passenger in his car.

He had been drinking lager and vodka and taken cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine before crashing after hitting metal railings and a wall near a cattle grid.

Chloe was killed as a result of the collision which happened in the early hours of Sunday, July 24, 2022 just outside Fochriw, near Bargoed, Caerphilly.

Jason Howells, prosecuting, said how former Dragons academy rugby and current Nelson player Roberts had met her at the Platform 11 club in Pontypridd.

He told the police he had gone to the nightclub with his girlfriend but she had left after they had argued.

Chloe had ended up being alone in Platform 11 and Roberts had wanted to take her with him to his home in Rhymney, Cardiff Crown Court was told.

South Wales Argus:

Chloe Hayman

She got into a car with him and a friend after they were picked up by another man who was being paid to take them back to the Caerphilly area at around 4am.

“The defendant stated that he had first met Chloe in the nightclub towards the end of the night but he was not sure how it happened,” Mr Howells said.

“He confirmed that he found her attractive and that they had kissed in the back of the car on the way home.

“The defendant could not recall how Chloe ended up leaving the nightclub with him and being in the car.”

South Wales Argus:

Keilan Roberts

After picking up alcohol at a petrol station in Nelson, Roberts asked the driver to take him to his car in Deri.

He told them “he wanted to get to know her better” and he and Chloe got out of the car with the intention of driving the Octavia to his house in Rhymney.

Roberts’ friends were so concerned about his behaviour when he drove her off in the car that they decided to follow them from a distance.

Their worst fears were confirmed when the defendant crashed the car and killed Chloe who was from Mountain Ash in Rhondda Cynon Taf.

The defendant pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving with alcohol, cocaine, ecstasy and ketamine in his blood.

Jeffrey Jones, representing Roberts, said: “He wishes to express his sorrow and regret to Chloe’s family.

“The defendant was tearful when he rang the emergency services from the scene of the tragedy.

“He’s not got any previous convictions, cautions or warnings.”

Judge David Wynn Morgan told Roberts: “Two eloquent victim personal statements were courageously read in open court today by Chloe Hayman's mother and her stepmother respectively.

“Anxiety was expressed that Chloe would become just another statistic.

“Chloe Heyman is no statistic.

“She was a real living person who would be alive today had you not taken the selfish, criminally foolish and intoxicated decision to put her in your car and to drive it.

“Aside from the disbelief that the court feels at the folly of your behaviour, the court’s primary preoccupation is deep sympathy for her mother, father, stepfather, stepmother, brothers, friends and all who knew her and whose lives were evidently enriched by her.”

Roberts was jailed for three years and nine months and banned from driving for 10 years.

He will have to sit an extended retest if he wants to get his driving licence back.