Pensioner pleads guilty to child crash death

A pensioner from County Antrim has pleaded guilty to causing the death of a schoolgirl by careless driving in August 2023.

John Noble Lindsay, 92, of Prince Andrew Way, Carrickfergus, appeared at Belfast Crown Court on Wednesday.

He originally faced one charge of causing the death of eight-year-old Scarlett Rossborough by dangerous driving on High Street in Carrickfergus.

At the request of the prosecution, a second charge of causing her death by careless driving was added to the bill of indictment, which he pleaded guilty to.

He pleaded not guilty to causing the schoolgirl's death by dangerous driving.

Defence counsel Frank O'Donoghue KC said that by entering his plea, the defendant was not challenging the fact that his driving caused the death of the schoolgirl.

"The only issue is whether his driving is to be properly labelled in law as dangerous or careless,'' Mr O'Donoghue told Belfast Recorder Judge Patricia Smyth.

He added: "We have a report from a consultant geriatrician who comments and reports about pedal misapplication.

"Pedal misapplication is where an elderly person presses the accelerator rather than the brake thinking they are pressing the brake and in this case there are features of that.

"It is my intention to serve that on the Crown in the next seven days and make that part of the evidence in this case.''

Prosecution counsel David Russell KC said that in light of the guilty plea, he was making a formal application for the defendant to be disqualified from driving.

The judge ordered Lindsay to be disqualified and set a trial date for the charge of causing death by dangerous driving for 4 November.

The case will be reviewed early next month.