THE HEARTBROKEN father of a young mother who was the hit and run victim of a paranoid schizophrenic today questioned how her killer's illness went unchecked for so long.

Reginald Proctor, 48, whose daughter Emma was killed in an horrific hit and run in Pontnewydd last April described his daughter Emma as "a beautiful, quiet girl".

"I loved her so much - it's taken the sparkle out of my eye and turned my world upside down," he said.

Emma, 25, and two friends Martin Connop and John Gibbings were mowed down by Steven John Price, 30, who was driving his father's 4X4 Ford Maverick as they walked along Five Locks Road, Pontnewydd last April.

Mr Connop and Mr Gibbings died at the scene, while Ms Proctor died in hospital the following day.

"She will always be in my heart, it's just devastating, the way it happened," said Mr Proctor, who lives in Cwmbran.

He added: "It is hard for me not to feel that he should have had three life sentences - he took three lives.

"In saying that, he must have been ill to do what he did. I can't understand how he could have been walking about in that state."

In Cardiff crown court on Friday, Judge John Griffith Williams ordered Price to be detained in hospital "indefinitely" under the Mental Health Act, after he pleaded guilty to three counts of manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility.

"I don't think that anyone should get to that stage. He (Price) should have had proper help and the right medication - it's down to the doctors - something needed to be done early on.

"Something like that doesn't just happen, it takes time, and people must have known he wasn't well."

In court, Price's barrister Patrick Harrington, QC, said his client had refused any help for his condition stressing that "no blame" could be put on the GP for not spotting his illness.

Heartbroken Mr Proctor revealed that his wife and Emma's mother Kim Elizabeth died of cancer when she was just 27.

"Emma was six when I lost her mother," he said. "We can only take it day by day, time is the greatest healer, but it's going to be a long time, if ever at all that I can move on. I've lost my daughter."