22-year-old Lillie Clack accepted a ride home from 25-year-old Charlie Hilton, who was drunk and had five passengers in his car.
Hilton sped off at 100 mph when spotted by police, leading to a chase that ended when his car hit a tree, flipped over, and erupted into flames in the early hours of December 25, 2021, resulting in Lillie’s death.
Lillie’s mother, 53-year-old Debbie Clack, told Your Local Guardian: “On Christmas morning 2021, there was a knock at my door, and it was two police officers telling me that my daughter had been involved in a car crash.
“We knew nothing more other than we had to put our shoes on and run straight to St George’s Hospital.
“It was 3am, and the doctors told my son and me that Lillie was brain dead.
“There was no brain activity whatsoever.
“She’d been involved in a car crash where a boy that had been drink driving was driving horrendously dangerously, and Lillie had catastrophic injuries to her body.”
Lillie was the only person to have lost her life in that car.
“Selfish” Charlie Hilton was questioned a few weeks after the crash, to which he responded, “no comment”.
Debbie added: “The autopsy had to prove that the injuries that she died from were caused by the car because the coward kept saying ‘no comment’.
“The coward was also allowed to continue to drive because there were no medical grounds to take his driving licence away.”
It wasn’t until a year later that the case was taken to court, but Hilton was still permitted to drive until the court date.
Hilton was later jailed in February 2023 and is currently serving a ten-year jail sentence.
On March 10, 2022, Lillie was laid to rest in the Merton and Sutton Cemetery, which she and Debbie had affectionately called “The Garden”.
Debbie said: “There were possibly over 300 people that attended her special day.
“On a daily basis, all day, every day, I will visit the cemetery and I will sit by Lillie’s forever bed.”
In summer 2022, Debbie discovered that there was an empty room which previously used to be an old waiting area within the cemetery.
Debbie applied to Merton Council to turn the waiting area into a tea room.
At the same time, Debbie and her family wanted to make a charity for Lillie’s money after finding out that the government doesn’t give financial aid when burying a loved one.
Debbie said: “We decided to start a charity to help other families when burying a loved one.
“I had an amazing family group around me, but a lot of people, sadly, don’t have that.
“It can be a mental block or a financial block for them.
“So, we decided to start a charity called Eyes Wet Now.”
To start a charity legally and with financial stability, a minimum of £5,000 is required.
After receiving approval from Merton Council to use the vacant room, Debbie opened Lillie’s in the Garden and raised £5,000, allowing the tea room to work hand-in-hand with Eyes Wet Now.
Lillie’s in the Garden, a non-profit volunteer-run initiative set up by Debbie, opened in September 2024.
Debbie said: “Friends, family, and the local community all help by donating different things: tables, chairs, teapots, saucers.
“After the rent and electricity are paid, the food is bought by me to buy ingredients to make cakes.
“The rest of the money goes directly to Eyes Wet Now.”
Debbie explained that opening a tea room was Lillie’s dream.
She explained: “Lillie had a dream, and it was always to own a tea room.
“I used to say to her that one day she could own one.
“I told her, ‘Why don’t you go out, earn your money, travel the world, and then when you’re ready to settle down and be a mummy, I’ll be ready to be a grandma, and between us, we can open a tea room together.’
“So, when we lost Lillie, my sister and I both said that one day we would love to be able to have the strength to open the tea room in her memory.
“And when I came across this one room in The Garden, the gatekeeper opened the door for me, and I could hear Lillie saying to me, ‘Mummy, there’s our tea room.’”
Debbie described her daughter as “absolutely amazing” and that she was “generous, caring and funny” and that there were “not enough words to describe what a sweetheart Lillie was”.
Debbie is now advocating for a change in law to ban all drunk drivers who are responsible for a death on the road.
This came after she spotted Charlie Hilton driving less than a month after Lillie’s death.
Debbie said: “At the end of the day, they are killers.
“We have a petition, and our petition is justice for the victims killed by drivers under the influence.
“Help us change the law, driving licences to be suspended immediately after someone has been killed.
“Currently, these drivers can continue to drive and potentially do it again.
“You do not and should not get a second chance.”
Hilton had 11 previous convictions, and Debbie described his sentence of just 10 years as “ridiculous”.
She said: “In 10 years, a killer with that track record is going to be allowed to drive again.
“That can’t be, we need to stop that straight away, and get people to sign our petition to change the law.
“We do not want you to donate, we just need those signatures.
“The law that allows killers to continue to drive has got to change.”
People can sign the petition on the Justice 4 Our Lillie website.
