Driver, 96, who lost control of car and killed a woman is spared jail

A 96-year-old woman who killed another pensioner when her car mounted the pavement as she left a bridge club has been given a suspended sentence.

June Mills told police she lost control of her Vauxhall Corsa when it accelerated unexpectedly as she left Elbow Lane Methodist Church in Formby, Merseyside, shortly after 4pm on August 2 last year, killing 76-year-old Brenda Joyce and injuring Jennifer Ensor, 80.

Sentencing her at Liverpool Crown Court on Monday, Judge Simon Medland KC said: "On any view and from every angle this case is an utter tragedy."

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"Mrs Joyce died, Mrs Ensor was injured, you have lost your good character and are in the dock of Liverpool Crown Court."

Robert Dudley, prosecuting, told the court Mrs Joyce and Mrs Ensor had been walking along the pavement after leaving the bridge club, which they attended with Mills, when the collision happened.

Mills, who was in a wheelchair and wore a green fleece and tartan blanket over her knees for the hearing, told police in a prepared statement her accelerator pedal felt as if it had "dropped to the floor" as she manoeuvred round a parked car and she had "shot forward".

She said: "It all happened very quickly and there were people in front of me but I could not avoid hitting them because the car was going so fast I had no control over it."

The court heard Mrs Joyce's husband did not support the prosecution.

In a statement which was read to the court, Mrs Ensor said she suffered minor physical injuries, including tendon damage which prevented her from playing a full round of golf, and had a "sense of guilt" at having survived.

Tom Gent, defending, said: "This is plainly a dreadfully sad case. Mrs Mills, the defendant, is extremely sorry for what happened. The consequences will haunt her forever. She feels great shame and guilt."

He said the former careers advisor, who surrendered her driving licence following the crash, had previously been involved in voluntary work with victims of crime and young offenders.

He added: "Recently she has housed, and continues to house, Ukrainian refugees."

He said she now accepted she must have mistakenly applied too much acceleration which caused her car to lurch forward and mount the kerb.

Judge Medland said, with credit for a guilty plea made at an earlier hearing, the starting point for her sentence would be 18 months in prison.

He said: "Bearing in mind the imposition guidelines, the pre-sentence reports, the abundance of references and, if I might add, plain common sense, it would not profit anybody to make that an immediate sentence, nor would that be a just outcome."

He suspended the sentence for 18 months.

Mills, of Broadway Close, Ainsdale, Merseyside, was ordered to pay a £1,500 fine and £500 prosecution costs and was disqualified from driving for five years.