A convicted drug dealer who deliberately drove into a crowd of pedestrians outside a takeaway, killing a 22-year-old woman, has been found guilty of murder.
Stephen McHugh, 28, who has never had a driving licence, had taken cocaine and drunk six beers and 10 double shots of spirits before driving on to the pavement in Oswestry, Shropshire in October.
Rebecca Steer, who was on a night out with her friends, was crushed underneath the vehicle and died of “catastrophic” injuries.
After a two-week trial at Stafford crown court, McHugh was found guilty of murder and attempting to cause grievous bodily harm in relation to a male pedestrian who was also knocked down.
McHugh previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter and assault, and claimed he was trying to frighten pedestrians after an earlier altercation nearby in which he left a man with a bloody nose.
Kevin Hegarty KC, prosecuting, said McHugh “used his car as a weapon” when he drove into the pedestrians in the early hours of Sunday 9 October last year.
Steer was almost hit by the vehicle as she was crossing the road, and was then struck by the car when it mounted the pavement. Hegarty told the court Steer “was dragged down under the car” as it increased in speed.
The court heard McHugh was heard “speaking in an aggressive way” before the incident and he reversed the car “at speed and without regard to those around him”.
“We say that was to strike his target, whoever it was. We don’t suggest Rebecca Steer was his target – she was in effect a bystander,” Hegarty said.
After his arrest, McHugh claimed he “didn’t mean to hit anyone”. “I am not an angry person,” he told the court. “I didn’t really think about it. It was a moment of stupidity.”
In a statement released after the verdict, Rebecca Steer’s family said she was a “pure joy”.
“So many people have said how they feel so sorry for us, and that is only natural, and we are totally humbled by it, but the person people should be feeling sorry for is not us at all, it’s Becca,” they said.
“We all get to live a life, but through no fault of her own whatsoever, her life was taken from her by a few seconds of someone else’s stupidity.”
DCI Mark Bellamy from West Mercia police paid tribute to the family for their strength in listening to the “contemptible and narcissistic behaviour of McHugh who continually lied throughout the trial in a desperate attempt to escape justice”.
“I am grateful that the jury saw through his web of lies and convicted him on the evidence presented to them,” he said. “This was a horrendous attack which tragically robbed an innocent young woman of her life while she was enjoying a night out with friends.”
He said the attack was “incredibly unusual, particularly for a small place like Oswestry, and understandably it shook the town to the core”.
Jurors had not been told that McHugh had previous convictions related to drugs and the seizure of a sawn-off shotgun in Merseyside in 2019.
He will be sentenced by Mr Justice Andrew Baker on Friday.
