Police have apologised to the father of a crash victim after a blunder led to him having to watch the moment his daughter died.

Bethany Alexander, who was 18, died in February after being involved in a crash with a cement mixer lorry on Dereham Road near her home in Costessey.

Her car was equipped with a dash camera which caught the fateful moment in full, which her father Ryan handed over the police to assist with investigations.

But when investigators were unable to download the footage from the camera's memory card it was returned to the family, With police believing it was not there.

MORE: Father of teenage crash victim's emotional plea for motorists to pay attention

However, as soon as Mr Alexander checked the card himself to his horror he discovered the footage and was left to see the devastating moment his daughter lost her life.

He said: "The biggest frustration in the whole investigation for me was getting back the camera having offered to help only to find the footage myself the second I looked.

"Had they been able to take the footage off I would not have had to watch it."

Mr Alexander, 41, was speaking after an inquest into his daughter's death on Monday, which heard how she had drifted into oncoming traffic and the path of a cement lorry.

He added: "Seeing the footage did give me some closure over what happened and made me more sympathetic towards the other driver."

Norfolk Police has now apologised for the error and any distress it caused Mr Alexander and his family.

Det Insp Chris Hinnitt, from the Norfolk and Suffolk roads policing team, said: "Firstly, our thoughts are with Bethany's family and we are sorry for any distress we have caused.

"In relation to the collision, we took the dashcam footage but due to technical reasons, which relate to how the footage downloads to the memory card, we could not access or view the content at that time. "Had we been aware that the footage was on the camera it would not have been returned to the family."

Miss Alexander was a student of Taverham Sixth Form Centre and, following the hearing, her father described her as "the life and soul of the party".