St Edwards School pupil Gabriella Edmondson has been jailed for 28 months after admitting causing the death of one of her friends when she crashed, drunk at the wheel.

Edmondson, 18, from High Wycombe, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing death by careless driving while drunk and was sentenced today by Judge Patrick Eccles.

She has been banned from driving for four years.

Grace Matilda Hadman, 17, from Lower Swell, near Cheltenham, was a back seat passenger in the Toyota Yaris when it left the A34 in Oxford and crashed into a wooded area on April 7.

Edmondson, who was 17 at the time, and the front seat passenger - a teenage boy from Boars Hill, Oxford - escaped with minor injuries while another passenger, Joe Robinson, from Thame, was seriously injured.

Judge Patrick Eccles, sentencing, said: “There can be few more poignant tasks facing a judge than to sentence a young person who has killed one of their close friends.”

He accepted Edmondson was a “decent, moral, gregarious and intelligent young woman”, but added: “The advantages you have had in your life cannot be allowed to affect the sentence which is passed.

“No sentence can assuage the grief of Grace Hadman’s family or lighten the grief of Joe Robinson’s family.”

Wdmondson, from High Wycombe, who was banned from driving for four years, will serve half her sentence in prison.

Miss Hadman was a boarder at St Edward's School where she was netball captain and Head Sacristan at its chapel.

She studied art, biology and maths at A-level.

A statement released on behalf of the Hadman family said: “We will always miss Grace beyond any understanding.

“Everything she was remains with us but she is not here.

“Grace was generous, considerate and kind; completely forgiving, unconditionally loving and openly affectionate.

“We will miss her every day and always.”

Edmondson’s solicitor Rob Rode said: “Gabriella Edmondson immediately accepted responsibility for the crash in which her best friend died and another friend was seriously injured.

“She pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.

“She accepts the punishment imposed by the court.

“As the prosecution made quite clear to the court there was no allegation of excess speed or other bad driving.

“She lost control of the car when she turned around asking those in the back of the car to be quiet.

“She had been due to stay the night in Oxford and not due to drive.

“As the prosecution made clear, she reluctantly agreed to drive others in her car feeling some pressure so to do. She will never forgive herself for the decision she made that night and she is just terribly terribly sorry for the pain, suffering and loss she has inflicted on others.”