KILLER CRASH MOTORIST IN 8HR BOOZE-UP

Driver didn’t spot bike on grille

A MOTORIST killed a cyclist after an eighthour bender.

And David Leather was so drunk he did not see his victim’s bike embedded in the front of his pick-up truck.

David Leather, 33, had supped at least four pints of Fosters, Aperol Spritz cocktails and a double gin and tonic when he got behind the wheel of his Ford Ranger.

He was doing 60mph in a 50zone when he ploughed into cyclist Steven Farrish, 49.

But Leather did not see him and drove on for half a kilometre with his bicycle attached to the front grille of his vehicle.

When he did finally spot it the motorist – who had been given an 18-month drink-drive ban two years earlier – fled the scene. Leather was jailed for six years and nine months at Chester Crown Court after admitting causing death by dangerous driving.

Maria Masselis, prosecuting, said Leather began drinking in a pub in Leek, Staffs, at 4pm.

He then picked up his partner and drove to Macclesfield, Cheshire, where they visited two bars and a nightclub. He stopped drinking at midnight and was speeding home on a “straight stretch” of road when he “noticed he had struck something he thought to be a deer”.

Ms Masselis said: “He said he didn’t see that a cycle was attached to his vehicle.” Pc Iain Condliffe of Cheshire Police said: “Leather left Steven dying in the road. His actions were callous and calculating.”