A Montrose man sat with his head bowed in the dock as a jury at Arbroath Sheriff Court found him guilty of causing the death of his teenage girlfriend in a horrific crash on the Montrose to Brechin road last year.
Craig McKinnon (22), of Tayock Farm, had denied that on April 10 last year, on the A935 near Dunmill Cottage, Pugeston, he caused the death of 16-year-old Denice Fletcher by driving his Vauxhall Corsa without due care or attention or without due consideration for other road users.
The charge stated that McKinnon was driving too fast for the road conditions and lost control of his car, crossing on to the opposite carriageway and colliding with a Ford Mondeo being driven by Alexander Neill (63), injuring him and his 68-year-old wife Margaret and causing Miss Fletcher to sustain fatal injuries.
The jury took a little over three hours to return the majority guilty verdict on the offshore worker, whose parents and other relatives sat in stunned disbelief in the public benches.
Their hopes of a guilty verdict to a lesser charge of careless driving without reference to causing Miss Fletcher’s death, or even one of not proven or not guilty, had been raised when the jury had earlier asked for clarification of the direction in law given to them by Sheriff Philip Mann.
During the course of the three-day trial, the jury heard how McKinnon had left the home he shared with his parents to go to the cinema in Dundee with Miss Fletcher. They also heard that the collision with Mr Neill’s car occurred less than two miles into the journey at a double bend which has been the scene of numerous accidents over the years.
McKinnon’s Corsa collided head-on with the Neills’ car and, although the emergency services were swiftly at the scene the police and ambulance service had already been alerted to another accident on the same stretch of road nothing could be done to save Miss Fletcher.
In evidence which had been agreed by depute fiscal Nicola Gillespie and defence advocate Frank Gallagher, the court was told she had sustained severe injuries to the left side of her face and head, with an underlying skull fracture and brain injury.
McKinnon and Mr Neill suffered only relatively minor abrasions and bruises but Mrs Neill sustained fractures to her right wrist and left shoulder.
Sheriff Mann told McKinnon, “You have been found guilty of a very serious charge and the consequences for you could also be very serious.
“For that reason I feel it appropriate that I defer sentence on this matter in order to obtain reports to assist me in deciding this case.”
Sentence was deferred until September 9 for the preparation of social inquiry, community service and restriction of liberty reports. McKinnon, who has been subject to bail conditions throughout the proceedings, was allowed to remain at liberty pending sentence, while also subject to an interim driving ban.