A Dundee youth failed in his bid to blame police for causing devastating injuries to two teenage girls thrown from his car in a high-speed crash on the A90 in Perthshire.
Robbie Mill, 20, tried to dodge responsibility for causing wounds to the passengers hurled from his aged 1.2 litre Vauxhall Corsa.
One of the two 14-year-olds suffered a “traumatic” brain injury.
Officers had chased then-teenager Mill through Perth and Bridge of Earn and towards Dundee, before he came off the dual carriageway and rolled his car.
He claimed during a trial at Forfar Sheriff Court last week he had been rammed.
However, a jury was shown dashcam footage from a following vehicle, which showed Mill wilfully driving onto the grass verge near St Madoes while trying to undertake a police BMW carrying out a containment technique.
The jury did not believe his attempt to shift the blame and after just an hour of deliberations, Mill was convicted of two charges of causing serious injury by driving dangerously on February 20 2021.
Mill, who pled guilty to being in a separate police pursuit through Dundee and last year admitted leaving a 13-year-old scarred for life after setting her leggings on fire, will be sentenced next month.
Pursuit from Perth
The court heard the pursuit of uninsured Mill – whose address was given as care of a person in Clepington Road, Dundee – began on Perth’s Tay Street just before 2pm.
He had a front seat passenger – a 14-year-old male – and the two girls in the back, one of whom had turned 14 just days earlier.
He negotiated the mini-roundabout at Marshall Place the wrong way before overtaking a line of stationary traffic at a red light and heading along Edinburgh Road and through Bridge of Earn.
While on the wrong side of the A912, another driver had to take evasive action before Mill joined the M90 and crossed the Friarton Bridge.
While travelling at more than 90mph, three police vehicles – a BMW X5, a Volvo V90 and an Audi A4 – attempted a three-car containment.
They planned to encircle Mill beside the central reservation and slow him gradually.
However, Mill – on three bail orders at the time – weaved between lanes, bashing the Volvo.
PC Scott Power, who drove the X5, told the court he had planned to take the left-hand position of a three-vehicle containment, with the V90 in front, the A4 at the rear and the central reservation to the right.
But when Mill continued moving, the plan changed and PC Power accelerated out in front, while the V90 took the right side.
Mill began swerving left and PC Power mirrored his positioning in front.
When Mill tried to undertake on the grass verge, his hatchback began bouncing and rolled.
Horrific injuries
The younger girl was rushed to Ninewells’ intensive trauma unit.
She was found to have a traumatic brain injury and “reduced” consciousness.
She also had sacral (base of the spine) fractures, stable lumbar vertebral fractures, an ear surface injury and a skull fracture.
Specialists from anaesthesiology, neurology, orthopaedics, physiotherapy and speech and language all treated the girl.
She was not discharged until March 31.
The other girl was also was rushed to Ninewells by ambulance.
Her right shoulder blade was fractured and she suffered a deep head wound and abdominal abrasions.
The boy in the front seat, who told police Mill had “panicked”, suffered no significant injuries.
Mill sustained only minor injuries.
The A90 was closed for nine hours.
Victims begged accused to stop
A filmed interview with the lesser-injured girl was shown to jurors.
She said: “We drove to Perth to go on a walk up a hill.
“A police car went past us. We were having a laugh, videoing it.
“He was like ‘I’m not pulling over.’ He started freaking out when all the other cars came.
“I felt me and (the other girl) going upside down. I woke up on the road to see (the other girl) screaming, getting CPR.”
She added: “I just remember getting chased and looking up and all the cars behind us.
“We’ve said let us out and you can go on this chase yourself” but Mill refused.
Defence lodged
Mill lodged a defence incriminating PC Power, whose X5 suffered minor damage.
The constable, 45, said his driving was in accordance with training and he did not recall feeling any contact.
“If the accused moves left, you move left to try and box him in.
“The accused has gone left, I’ve gone over as far as I can.”
In cross-examination, he added: “He wasn’t knocked off the road, he did that by his own decision.”
When asked about the damage to the X5, its passenger PC Stephen Curry, 38, said: “I had far more important things to do then.
“My priority alone was holding a young girl’s head together, I was not interested in examining my car for damage.”
‘Desperate’ accused
Mill chose not to give evidence.
Fiscal depute Calum Gordon told the jury: “He simply was desperate to get away from the police at any cost.
“He had every opportunity to stop, every opportunity to slow down. He pushed his car to its limits.”
The jury unanimously convicted Mill.
Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown deferred sentencing for reports until June 13, when Mill has a hearing for his involvement in a second police chase.
Disqualifying him from driving in the interim, she added: “Given the nature of the offence, you should be aware that a custodial sentence is a prospect.”
Mill is already on a community payback order after, as a “prank”, he set fire to a 13-year-old girl’s leggings with a cigarette lighter at Dundee’s Caird Park in June 2020.
Her lower clothing burst into flames as she had been using hand gel to clean off dog dirt and s suffered a severe burn and permanent scar.
Later pursuit
Prior to the trial beginning, Mill appeared alongside HMP Perth inmate Ryan Robertson in connection with the latter’s dangerous driving through Dundee on April 29 last year.
Passenger Mill, then on five bail orders, admitted allowing himself to be carried in the car, knowing it had been taken without permission.
With false number plates, Robertson – also on bail – failed to stop for police as he sped through along various roads, including a footpath to the grounds of Longhaugh primary school and park.
While the pair tried to flee on foot, the car rolled back into a police vehicle, damaging it.
Robertson is banned from driving until 2026 after his year-long thieving spree was halted following another high speed police chase.
Both Mill and Robertson will be sentenced for this matter on June 13.
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