THE family of a teacher killed by a speeding BMW driver has condemned the "lenient" sentence handed out to her killer.

Bill Parish said the 15-month prison term sentence given to driver Jamie White was a "joke", and that he had completely lost faith in the British justice system.

Lynette Parish died travelling to Bullingdon Prison, near Bicester, where she taught inmates.

The 55-year-old was killed when her Volkswagen Polo car was hit by White's oncoming BMW estate as he lost control on a bend after overtaking another car on the B4011, near Arncott.

Australian-born Mrs Parish, who had been a teacher at the prison for 14 years, and lived with her husband at Sycamore Drive, Banbury, died instantly.

Speaking outside Oxford Crown Court after sentencing, Mr Parish said the sentence was an insult to his wife's memory.

He said: "I'm absolutely disgusted by the sentence. We've lived through a year of hell, but he will be out in a few months and carry on.

"He never seemed to accept what he had done, but we have all got a life sentence.

"Everything you read about people losing faith in justice has been shown in this sentence."

White, 29, had originally denied one count of causing death by dangerous driving, claiming it was only careless.

However, he changed his plea when experts proved he must have been exceeding the speed limit by about 8mph to have lost control at the bend seconds before the crash in November last year.

Nigel Daly, prosecuting, told the judge that the force of the impact was so strong White's car slipped, spun around, and landed upside down in a ditch. Tony Davis, defending, said his client was "a model citizen with an unblemished past".

He added: "This was a momentary aberration, a miscalculation, a purely transient and ephemeral piece of driving."

He accepted White had exceeded the speed limit; however, he said it was purely for a few seconds during an overtaking manoeuvre.

Addressing White, of Chearsley Road, Long Crendon, near Thame, Judge Christopher Compston said no sentence could ever compensate the family for their loss.

"I am going to send you to prison, there can be do doubt about that," he said.

"You came up to the bend and lost control, causing the tragic death of Mrs Parish.

"The least sentence I can pass is 12 months. I think it is worse than that."

Judge Compston jailed him for 15 months and disqualified him from driving for the same period. Speaking outside the court, retired business manager Mr Parish paid tribute to his wife.

"She was a very caring person and one of her big satisfactions in life was that she was helping some of the inmates to lead a better life," he said. "She had two sons, Dan and Jake, and a grandchild due in a few weeks which now, tragically, she will never see."