Hit and run driver left woman dying in ditch

A COMPANY director killed a farmer’s wife in a hit-and-run collision before driving off to catch a train, a court heard.

Jonathan Kane, 52, struck Catherine Bailey, 45, with his Land Rover Discovery as she walked her two collies on a country road.

The mother of one, wearing a high-visibility jacket, was thrown into a ditch. Kane got out to check what he had hit but then fled, it is alleged. He later claimed he thought he hit a wheelie bin. Jurors were told he was in a rush to catch a sleeper to London on the night of the collision in St Minver, near Padstow, Cornwall. He had to fly to Frankfurt on business the next day.

It is alleged he may have been distracted by the First Great Western phone app during the drive to Plymouth train station. But Stephen Mooney, prosecuting at Truro Crown Court, accepted Kane was not speeding or making calls or texts at the time of the collision.

Witnesses said a ‘flustered’ Kane arrived at the station just before midnight with damage to his car and smoke coming from the bonnet.

Kane, of Chelsea, had been at his £1million second home in Trebetherick before the collision in July last year. He admits causing death by careless driving, dangerous driving and driving without insurance, but denies causing death by dangerous driving. The trial continues.