Builder jailed for six years after CCTV of brutal hit-and-run goes viral

A builder who “callously” left a father for dead in a high speed hit-and-run has been jailed for six-and-a-half-years.

Adam McDermott left 54-year-old Andrew Payne with life-threatening injuries after speeding around a corner on the wrong side of the road in Brighton.

The 33-year-old, who is already in custody for another offence, was driving his then fiancee’s Fiat 500 when he hit Payne, knocking him into the air, on January 14 last year.

He then set the car alight and went on the run, but was convicted after shocking CCTV of the crash, released by police as part of a witness appeal, was viewed more than three million times.

McDermott was sentenced in his absence at Brighton Crown Court on Tuesday after refusing to attend the hearing.

Judge Charles Kemp, addressing McDermott as though he was in court, said: “It is your dangerous driving which had life-changing effects on Mr Payne and his immediate family.

“We heard in his victim impact statement his sheer disbelief that a human being could do that and then callously drive off, leaving him as if for dead.”

Mr Payne, who attended court with his family to hear the sentence, was rushed to hospital with a serious head injury after being hit at around 3.40pm when McDermott turned into Montague Place at high speed.

He was crossing the road while making house calls as a meter reader for energy company SSE at the time of the collision.

He was left with two bleeds on the brain. Doctors told him previous surgery for a brain tumour saved him from needing another operation, the court heard.

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Speaking after the sentencing, he told reporters he was recovering well and McDermott got what he deserved.

In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr Payne said he lost a stone in weight after the crash and cannot remember events which took place beforehand or much of the moments after.

He found himself worrying about crossing the road and constantly looking for traffic, the court heard.

He has been off work for months and has since been able to retrain and return as a smart meter reader.

On his behalf, Rachel Beckett, prosecuting, said that in the moments immediately following the crash he wondered if he was dying because all he could hear was someone’s voice and he felt a stabbing pain in his head.

She said Mr Payne found it “inconceivable” that McDermott could hit someone and drive off and “unimaginable” that he then lied to police.

In the statement, he said: “I still don’t know how I survived.”