A dangerous driver in a "bad mood" caused a horrific crash which claimed his own life and killed two others including a teenage boy, an inquest heard.

Mechanic Ken Thornett was driving so dangerously after a row with his long-term partner that he should have faced charges for manslaughter had he survived the smash, coroner Alan Craze said.

The East Sussex coroner ruled the two other victims, 13-year-old Aaron Hogg and the driver of a second car, Perry Carter, 31, were both unlawfully killed in the crash in September last year.

Aaron, of Whatlington Way, St Leonards, was a passenger in a Ford Granada, driven by Mr Thornett, which exploded into flames after the crash in Queensway, a 60mph-bypass and notorious accident blackspot north of Hastings.

An inquest into the three deaths, at Hastings Magistrates yesterday, heard how Mr Thornett, 48, of Beckley Close, St Leonards, had been driving at speeds of 80 to 90mph when he lost control of his car and swerved on to the other side of the road.

The car was in a collision with a Citroen ZX, driven by Mr Carter, of Pembury near Tunbridge Wells. Aaron, a friend of the Thornett family, and Mr Carter, were killed almost instantly, the inquest heard. Aaron's family were represented by their solicitor.

Mr Thornett's partner of 15 years, Angela Woolcott, was left disfigured by severe burns. Her daughters and a passenger in the second car survived but suffered serious injuries.

The inquest heard how Mr Thornett, a moody and sometimes violent man, had fallen into "one of his moods" earlier that day.

The two children who were both upset about an earlier argument when they and Aaron had attended Army Cadets in Bexhill Road that evening.

Miss Woolcott told the inquest Mr Thornett often sped off in his car to vent his frustrations and get out of his "bad moods". Instead of taking the them all directly home he carried on, driving faster and faster, before doing a handbrake turn in Napier Road and returning to Queensway.

He overtook at least one car and Miss Woolcott told him to slow down on several occasions, which he refused, the inquest heard. She said the girls started screaming at him to slow down and she was frightened.

She said: "I saw the headlights coming towards us. I said to slow down, we're not going to make it, and then the crash happened. I wouldn't have got in the car if I had known he was going to drive like that.

"I wouldn't have put my girls in danger. What did he think? That I would choose to go around looking like this?"

Mr Craze said that, had Mr Thornett lived, he could have been prosecuted for death by dangerous driving or manslaughter.

He recorded a verdict of unlawful killing for the deaths of Mr Carter and Aaron and a verdict of death by misadventure for Mr Thornett.