Rebecca Steer's death was 'same scenario' as the murder of Olivia-Pratt Korbel, says dad

Rebecca, from Llanymynech, Wales died after a drunk and drug-fuelled McHugh drove at a crowd of young people she was with outside the Grill Out takeaway in Oswestry's Willow Street.

Rebecca, known as "Becca" to her parents had been an "innocent bystander" and was unknown to convicted drug dealer McHugh, who had ploughed into the group she was with as if they were "human skittles" following an earlier altercation, the two-week trial had heard.

Describing the family's loss in an impact statement to Stafford Crown Court, where the judge sentenced McHugh to life in prison with a minimum term of 18 years on Friday, David Steer, Becca's father, said he still could not come to terms with his daughter's death.

He said: "The way in which Becca was taken from us was such an abhorrent act that we will never overcome the loss. Six months on, and it does not seem real.

"I can't get over the way she died. It was was the same scenario when the little girl was murdered in Liverpool," he said, drawing parallels of the actions of McHugh, who was also originally from Liverpool, to the actions of Thomas Cashman.

Cashman was sentenced to a minimum term of 42 years after killing nine-year-old Olivia-Pratt Korbel who was gunned down on the doorstep of her family home in Liverpool. Cashman had been pursuing a rival drug dealer.

Mr Steer added: "Becca had her future and aspirations wiped out and will never be the detective she aspired to be, never marry, never have children. We'll never be a family again. there is a void in our family and beautiful Becca will never be replaced."

His mother Jennie also gave a statement to the court. She said: "We believe it is impossible for a judge to comprehend the pain and loss felt by us unless they have experienced a similar loss themselves.

No words can express the loss we have and continue to endure. Those few seconds of madness have hurt us forever. whatever judgement has passed, our pain will go on forever."

After McHugh was jailed for the minimum of 18 years for the death of their daughter, Mr and Mrs Steer said in a joint statement: "We will try to go back now and pick the pieces up – it’s all we can do but how we move forward, we don’t know.

"We couldn’t have gotten through without the wider community and even six or seven months later, we’re getting support from people within the village.

"There’s people who didn’t know Becca and we don’t know who they are but we’re getting messages of support.

"But there will be days when we will want to grieve on our own."

They added that they wanted to thank the Shropshire Star and other local reporters for their coverage.

"Everyone who thinks they know what happened, they have no idea, but thankfully down to everything that’s been reported and come out in the court, they will have an understanding and no more rumours," they said.