96-year-old woman receives suspended sentence after fatal car accident

File photo dated 29/8/2024 of 96-year-old June Mills who has been given a suspended sentence at Liverpool Crown Court after she killed another pensioner when her car mounted the pavement as she left a bridge club. 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. Issue date: Monday September 30, 2024.
-Credit: (Image: PA)


A 96 year old woman, who killed another pensioner when her car mounted the pavement after leaving a bridge club, has received a suspended sentence.

June Mills informed police that she lost control of her Vauxhall Corsa when it accelerated unexpectedly as she was leaving Elbow Lane Methodist Church in Formby, Merseyside, just after 4pm on August 2 last year.

This resulted in the death of 76 year old Brenda Joyce and injury to Jennifer Ensor, 80.

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

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

Prosecutor Robert Dudley explained to the court that Mrs Joyce and Mrs Ensor were walking along the pavement after leaving the bridge club, which they attended with Mills, when the collision occurred.

Mills, who attended the hearing in a wheelchair and wore a green fleece and tartan blanket over her knees, told police in a prepared statement that her accelerator pedal felt as if it had "dropped to the floor" as she manoeuvred around 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."

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The court was informed that Mrs Joyce's husband did not support the prosecution.

In a statement read to the court, Mrs Ensor revealed she sustained minor physical injuries, including tendon damage which has hindered her ability to play a full round of golf, and confessed to feeling a "sense of guilt" for surviving the incident.

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 detailed how the former careers advisor, who gave up her driving licence after the crash, had a history of voluntary work with crime victims and young offenders.

Gent further noted: "Recently she has housed, and continues to house, Ukrainian refugees."

He said that she now recognises she must have inadvertently applied excessive acceleration, causing her car to surge forward and mount the kerb.

Judge Medland, taking into account an early guilty plea, indicated that the starting point for her sentence would be 18 months in prison.

He stated: "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."

The sentence was suspended for 18 months.

Mills, from Broadway Close, Ainsdale, Merseyside, was instructed to pay a £1,500 fine and £500 towards prosecution costs, and received a five-year driving disqualification.