A FORENSIC investigator has told the trial of Stephen McHugh, accused of murdering Rebecca Steer in Oswestry last year, that she was struck at around 10mph.  

Michael Prime appeared for the defence on day six of the trial at Stafford Crown Court on Wednesday (April 26) and was quizzed by barrister Sebastian Gardiner. 

Mr Prime told the court that he had submitted a report, commissioned by McHugh’s defence, to show the location of the 28-year-old’s Volvo car in Willow Street on Sunday, October 9. 

He added that he had written the report based on the CCTV footage that has been shown to the jury this week, as well as making a site visit to the town in March.  

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The expert witness, with more than 20 years’ experience as a road traffic collision investigator, said that he calculated that when McHugh’s Volvo mounted the pavement outside Grill Out, it was doing on average, 10 mph.  

This, he said, would have been the speed that McHugh would have collided with his victims.  

McHugh denies murdering Miss Steer and causing Kyle Roberts grievous bodily harm but admits their respective manslaughter and ABH.

However, under cross-examination, Mr Prime admitted that a low-speed collision would have pulled a pedestrian downwards rather than being propelled by high-speed contact.  

He also admitted that while McHugh was driving at a relatively low speed, he would have pushed both victims along the road for a short space of time, based on the CCTV evidence.

Mr Prime also told the court that, by his calculations, McHugh spent between 1.5 to 2.5 seconds on the pavement in Willow Street when he drove at a group of people, before the car regained its course.  

And the jury was shown a ‘fraction of light’ that suggested that the brakes on the car were engaged briefly before the incident, and that McHugh would have struggled to ‘rev’ the engine while engaged in drive, as the defendant said he was.  

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Meanwhile, earlier in the day, McHugh told the court that he ‘will have to live with this for the rest of his life’.  

He took to the stand for the second half of his evidence – facing questions from prosecutor Kevin Hegarty KC.

Throughout his evidence, McHugh re-iterated that while he mounted the kerb during the incident, he did not mean to and that he was ‘sorry’ for causing the 22-year-old’s death.  

He said: “I don’t like what I’ve done – I’m not proud of what I’ve done.”  

He added: “I have to live with this for the rest of my life.”  

The trial continues.