A MAN has been charged with causing the deaths of a Bolton couple in a car crash which also left three schoolgirls fighting for their lives.

Sean Connolly, aged 21, of Stansfield Close, Tonge Moor, is accused of causing the death by dangerous driving of mother-of-two Lisa Halligan and her boyfriend Michael Jefferies. The couple died instantly when they were thrown from a red Mazda MX-5 which mounted a pavement and crashed into a lamppost in Bradford Street, The Haulgh, shortly after midnight on May 1,

The car also collided with a group of schoolgirls. Three were seriously injured and a fourth suffered a broken leg.

Miss Halligan, aged 36, an IT worker, of Daisy Street, Daubhill, was the mother of teenage daughters Sarah, aged 14, and 16-years-old Sian.

Mr Jefferies was a 28-year-old van driver of Bury Road, Bolton.

The couple had been together for just four months before the crash.

Cousins Lisa Bannister and Lucy Peeney, aged 14, of Greenroyd Avenue, Breightmet, and Rachel Hewitson, also 14, of Tetbury Drive, Breightmet, spent more than three months in hospital following the accident.

Linda Longworth, also 14, of Archer Avenue, Tonge Moor, was released after being treated for a broken leg.

All the girls were close friends and in Year Nine at Thornleigh Salesian College.

Connolly is also charged with failing to stop after an accident, failing to report an accident and driving a motor vehicle without insurance.

He was granted bail and will appear at Bolton Magistrates on Monday.