The mother of the youngest Shoreham Airshow crash victim said she feels "let down" by the justice system after the pilot was cleared of manslaughter charges.

A jury found Andrew Hill not guilty of the 11 counts over the 2015 crash.

An official Government report into the accident, published in 2017, found the crash was caused by pilot error when Mr Hill flew too low and too slowly while carrying out the bent loop manoeuvre, and could have been avoided.

Leslye Polito, who lost her son Daniele in the crash, said: "I feel extremely disappointed, very upset and primarily let down by the justice system."

The 23-year-old builder left behind two young children, one of whom he never had chance to meet.

He had left work early and was travelling to the beach with a colleague when flames engulfed their car after the plane crashed on the A27.

Mrs Polito, 66, of Goring in West Sussex, said: "The whole fact that it was avoidable, that was the hardest bit to consider and process. It's still the hardest bit."

"Bye mum, love you" were the last words Mrs Polito heard her youngest son say, as she had so many times before when he left the house.

That day he had been at work with 24-year-old Matt Jones, who also died in the crash. Their boss had let them leave early to enjoy the hot weather and they were driving to the beach in Mr Jones's car.

She and her husband Nino were at a party when they heard about the crash and discussed it with guests but thought nothing more of it - no-one knew at that stage that anyone had died.

They thought Daniele was still at work. But both he and Mr Jones were killed, while their boss had been driving a few cars behind them and saw the horror unfold.

Mrs Polito said the couple had "absolutely no idea" anything was wrong until they arrived home that evening to find some of their son's workmates on the doorstep, extremely worried after searching for him in hospitals all afternoon.

She called her husband and daughter Marina back to the house and later that night police confirmed they found Mr Jones's driving licence at the crash scene.

Mrs Polito said she "couldn't believe it at all" and felt "absolutely numb, just numbness and complete shock," adding: "It wasn't confirmed (immediately) so we never accepted. We wanted to think positively, maybe he wasn't in that car.

"They shouldn't have been on that road at that time at all."

The next 24 hours were a "blur" while they frantically tried to reach older siblings Carl and Kelly, who live abroad, and Mrs Polito was unwell all night.

Daniele was identified five days later by his unique tattoos - which included a design dedicated to his son Georgio who was barely three when his father died.

Mrs Polito said: "If there's anything good about it, which there isn't, it's that it was all instant.

"It helps to know that.

"One just learns to live each day as it comes and take every day and live as normally as one can.

"Every birthday, Christmas, Father's Day - it doesn't matter what they are, they are all equally as difficult as the anniversary (of the incident)."

Daniele was never able to meet his youngest son, Jaxson, who was born after he died, Mrs Polito said.

Although they have "two lovely little boys to carry on his name", she said this was "bittersweet", adding: "We have that but we don't have him and he won't get to see either of them grow up.

"We will make sure they know all about their daddy.

"We talk about Daniele all the time, every day.

"He was full of life, a joker, he was extremely family orientated.

"Everything to him was family, I think due to his Italian heritage. He wanted to live life to the full."