Men who sold teenage girl MDMA before she died cleared of manslaughter

Jason Burder and Adam King plead guilty to drugs charges after being cleared of gross negligence manslaughter of 16-year-old Megan Bannister

The defendants are alleged to have failed to summon medical help for Megan Bannister (Family handout/PA)

Two men have admitted being involved in supplying MDMA to a 16-year-old schoolgirl who was pronounced dead after being found lifeless in the back of their car.

Jason Burder, 29, and 28-year-old Adam King pleaded guilty to drugs charges after being cleared of the gross negligence manslaughter of Megan Bannister part-way through their trial.

The defendants, who will be sentenced on Wednesday, were alleged to have failed to summon medical help for the teenager before a crash near Enderby, Leicestershire, on Sunday May 14.

A trial at Birmingham Crown Court was told Burder and King stopped to buy beer after putting Megan in the back of the Vauxhall Astra.

Although Burder told his mother they were taking Megan home, they drove her around from shortly before 7.50am until the crash - in which a biker suffered a broken pelvis - at about 11.40am.

An off-duty nurse told the trial Burder and King "must have known" that Megan, who was half-covered by a coat and had no obvious crash injuries, was dead.

The GCSE student, who wanted to be a midwife, knew Burder - whose Facebook profile falsely gave his age as 21 - through social media but only met him in person two days before her death.

Trial judge Mrs Justice Jefford instructed jurors to acquit both defendants of manslaughter after legal submissions following the close of the Crown's case.

In a written ruling explaining her decision, the judge said there was no evidence on which a jury could be sure that failing to seek assistance for Megan - however "morally repugnant" it might be - had caused her death.

The judge stated: "It seems to me clear, firstly, that there is evidence on which the jury could conclude that either or both of these men provided the drugs to Megan.

"It is a sad fact of this case that it will never be known exactly what happened and whether the decision of the defendants to put her in the car and take her away caused or contributed to her death."

Following his acquittal on the manslaughter charge, Burder pleaded guilty to supplying Megan with MDMA on May 14, possessing MDMA on the same date, careless driving, and two other drugs charges relating to MDMA and cocaine.

King admitted being concerned in the supply of MDMA to Megan on the same date.

Burder, of Braunstone Avenue, and King, of Waltham Avenue, both Leicester, were remanded in custody until Wednesday.