Motorist, 80, pleads guilty to dangerous driving after hitting eight schoolgirls

An 80-year-old motorist has admitted dangerous driving after hitting eight youngsters outside a school.

Norma Stokes mowed down the pupils after mounting the kerb outside Belvedere Academy in Toxteth, Liverpool last February.

The girls, aged between 11 and 16, suffered a range of injuries including broken arms and facial cuts. One pupil required treatment for a brain injury.

Stokes pleaded guilty to five charges of causing serious injury by dangerous driving at Liverpool Crown Court.

The court heard that the defendant had been to the doctor in the lead-up to the incident, where she had injections of cortisone, containing anaesthetic, to both knees.

On the day on the incident, Stokes overtook slow moving traffic and collided with a bollard on an island.

Her car then mounted the pavement behind three stationary coaches, driving along the pavement between the coaches and the school railings and hitting a total of eight schoolgirls. She caused serious injury to five of them.

Her car also caused damage to two of the coaches, ripping off the nearside door of one of them.

Stokes will be sentenced on Wednesday at Liverpool Crown Court.