Hit-and-run driver guilty

A hit-and-run driver today admitted knocking down a Black Country mother and leaving her to die on Mother's Day.

Leanne Moore was returning home from a night out at the Widders pub in Cradley when she was mowed down by Paul Jones in Barrack Lane, Cradley.

Leanne, aged 25, from Halesowen, who was the mother of Sophie, then aged ten months, died later in the early hours of March 2 at Russells Hall Hospital in Dudley.

Jones, aged 22 of Leonard Road, Wollaston, Stourbridge today pleaded guilty for causing death by dangerous driving at Wolverhampton Crown Court.

Two other charges of driving without insurance and otherwise driving in accordance with a licence were withdrawn.

Jones spoke only to confirm his name and plea during the brief hearing.

Miss Samantha Powis, defending, said Jones admitted being the driver of the Rover 800 but had no idea he had hit Miss Moore, of Cranmore Crescent, when he fled the scene.

Miss Powis said: "As he approached the brow of the hill his windscreen was misty and he was blinded by oncoming headlights.

"He swerved and hit what he believed to be a wall and a hedge."

She said Jones admitted he had drunk a pint of lager and a bottle of cider, although the prosecution argue he had consumed more alcohol.

Jones gained notoriety in Stourbridge as one of the town's "gummy twins".

Judge Michael Dudley adjourned the case and remanded Jones in custody to the week beginning June 23.

Jones first hit the headlines in 2001, after he was named and shamed by the courts under an Anti Social Behaviour Order. He earned the nickname after his teeth were knocked out in a fight and his brother punched his own teeth out to look more like his sibling.