Woman, 96, spared jail after killing pensioner in her car

June Mills was driving home from bridge club when she ran over and killed fellow player Brenda Joyce

A 96-year-old woman has been handed a suspended prison sentence after she struck and killed another pensioner following an afternoon playing cards. June Mills was driving home from a bridge club at a church hall when she ran over fellow player Brenda Joyce.

The “haunted and ashamed” OAP claims that she “suddenly lost control” of her vehicle when the accelerator slipped from underneath her foot as she was manoeuvring around a parked car. A judge today told her that it would “not profit anybody” to send her to prison following what he branded an “utter tragedy”.

Liverpool Crown Court heard this morning, Monday, that both Mills and 76-year-old Mrs Joyce were among around 50 attendees at the bridge club at Elbow Lane Methodist Church in Formby on the afternoon of August 2 last year. The latter and her friend Jennifer Ensor had driven to the event but parked their cars a short distance away and began to walk back to their vehicles shortly after 4pm.

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Robert Dudley, prosecuting, described how Mills, of Broadway Close in Ainsdale, had also taken herself to the bridge club in her white Vauxhall Corsa. She had left her 62-plate automatic in the church’s car park and was approaching vehicles which were waiting to turn out of Elbow Lane onto Duke Street from the rear when she careered into both women.

Mrs Ensor subsequently recounted having been walking side by side with Mrs Joyce towards Duke Street when she was hit from behind and fell to the floor. She was thereafter unable to see her friend, but noticed her handbag left strewn on the pavement.

A retired doctor, Dr Nera Nirula, who had been waiting in the line of cars in her Jaguar meanwhile witnessed the Corsa coming to a stop after colliding with a Ford at the front of the queue. She recalled seeing “a leg sticking out underneath the rear passenger side” of Mills’ car and went to assist the trapped casualty.

Firefighters had to lift the vehicle in order to free Mrs Joyce from underneath, but she was pronounced dead at the scene. Mr Dudley detailed how her head was found to have struck the car’s windscreen before she was dragged underneath and suffered multiple fractures to skull, legs, pelvis and ribs, with a post-mortem examination concluding that she had died of “multiple injuries as a result of serious blunt force trauma”.

Mrs Ensor meanwhile sustained injuries including a lump to the left side of her head, but she did not require hospital treatment. Both the Jaguar and Ford were also damaged as a result of the incident.

Mills was left uninjured following the crash and told attending police officers that “there was a vehicle in front of her and she had accelerated to go around the vehicle when all of a sudden she lost control, mounted the pavement and struck a woman”. When interviewed at her home address on September 25 2023, she said in a prepared statement that she was “devastated and deeply saddened” and “struggling to deal with what happened”.

She added that she had been driving for 65 years but would only use her car to attend bridge club, collect her friend from Birkdale and go shopping at Waitrose and “had never had previous problems with the car”. Mills’ statement continued: “The amount of time it took for the events that followed would have been just seconds.

“My car just shot forward, completely out of control. It felt as if the pedal fell away. I remember pressing the accelerator just gently, and then it felt as if it dropped to the floor and shot off.

“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. I do recall trying to steer away from them, but it all happened so quickly.”

Mills, who has no previous convictions, has since surrendered her driving licence. Tom Gent, defending, told the court: “This is plainly a dreadfully sad case. Mrs Mills is extremely sorry for what happened. The consequences will haunt her forever. She feels great shame and guilt.

“She was manoeuvring around a parked car ahead of her to her left. She was returning to the correct side of the road when, unexpectedly, she accelerated too much.

“She accepts that she must have mistakenly applied too much acceleration. That caused the car to lunge forward and mount the kerb before the collision.

“It was not a deliberate act. It was her error, but she cannot explain it. That unintended, excessive acceleration confused her. That confusion led to a delay in braking and the collision occurring. It was not a conscious decision to drive in the way that she did.

“The defendant is 96. Over that long life, she has never committed an offence before. She has a very long and good work history. She is in very poor health.

“References speak of a long history of helping others. She had worked as a careers advisor. After retirement, she volunteered with both victims of crime and also young offenders.

“More recently, she has housed and continues to house Ukrainian refugees. She continues to be charitable, less so with her time nowadays but more so with her finances.

“It is plain that she is a caring, compassionate lady. She has felt the consequences keenly. She remains haunted by it. She is now reluctant to leave her home and is ashamed that she is appearing before a criminal court.

“There is genuine and significant remorse. The defendant has surrendered her driving licence in the aftermath of this incident. The reality is that she will never driving again, and she is accepting of that entirely.

“She does not present any danger to the public, out with her driving. There is absolutely no prospect of her ever offending again. She has a long and blameless history. She has exhibited positive characteristics throughout her long life.”

Mills admitted causing death by dangerous driving during an earlier hearing, and is believed to be the oldest woman in the country to have been convicted of such an offence. Allowed to remain out of the dock and instead sitting in the body of the court in a wheelchair wearing a green coat and with a blanket over her knees, she appeared to breathe a sigh of relief and nodded as she was handed an 18-month imprisonment suspended for 18 months.

Sentencing, Judge Simon Medland KC said: “Throughout your long life, you have never committed a criminal offence, quite the contrary. Many people speak of your kindness, public spiritedness, warm heartedness and general goodness.

“This court’s sympathy must inevitable rest with Mrs Ensor, who was injured, and Brenda Joyce, who died, but it is right to observe that, on any view, this case is an utter tragedy. You have lost your good character and are in the dock of a crown court.

“It would not profit anybody to make that an immediate sentence, nor would that be a just outcome. Because of your age and illness, there is no punishment by way of unpaid work or the like that would be appropriate. Because of your previous outstanding good character, there is no need for a rehabilitation activity requirement.”

Mills was also fined £1,500 and told to pay court costs of £500. She was banned from driving for five years and will be required to pass an extended retest before being allowed back on the roads.