Fail-to-stop driver Matthew Leggett jailed over crash death

A driver who fled the scene of a crash that killed a 61-year-old pedestrian on the A66 in Cumbria has been jailed.

Matthew Leggett sped off at more than 100mph after his BMW hit James Greenwood near Keswick in April 2018.

Carlisle Crown Court heard the 25-year-old drove 12 miles in just 12 minutes in the severely damaged car that also had a shattered windscreen.

He was jailed for 16 months after admitting dangerous driving, failing to stop and failing to report an accident.

The court was told Leggett, of Sonnets Way, Cockermouth, sped off without checking what had happened, leaving his details or calling 999.

That left friends of Mr Greenwood, from Market Drayton, Shropshire, with only light from mobile phones to assess the scene with "people screaming and panicking in the darkness".

Mr Greenwood was crossing an unlit stretch of the road on foot while returning to a camp site with friends just before 00:30 GMT on 7 April last year.

He died soon afterwards despite one friend attempting CPR while police and paramedics were called.

Mr Greenwood's daughter Lisa Manning told the court the family's "world was torn apart" by his death.

A friend of Leggett's, Finlay Davidson, 24, from Great Clifton, was also jailed for 10 months for perverting the course of justice after he admitted deleting call data between himself and Leggett from his mobile phone on the night of the crash.

Jailing Leggett, who was also banned from driving for four years, Judge David Potter told him: "You could have, and should have, stopped at the side of the A66. You did not.

"You drove off, and I am satisfied that at that moment your only concern was for yourself. You cared not one jot at that moment what or who you had struck on that road.

"It is sheer good fortune that you weren't involved in another collision."

He told Davidson: "Misguided loyalty can never be an excuse for setting out to pervert the course of justice."

Earlier this week a jury failed to reach a verdict on a charge of perverting the course of justice against Leggett.