Louis Thorold: Pensioner told police 'I just didn't look' in aftermath of crash which killed baby

A pensioner who caused a crash which killed a baby in his pram told officers she "just didn't look" before pulling across a busy junction, a court heard.

Louis Thorold was being pushed in his pram by his mother along the A10 at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, in January last year when a delivery van mounted the pavement, hitting them both.

Shelagh Robertson, 75, is accused of causing death by careless driving after her Mazda car turned right into the path of the van, forcing it to veer towards the baby boy and his mum Rachael Thorold.

She admits causing the crash but her lawyers say she was suffering from undiagnosed Alzheimer's at the time and was therefore "legally insane".

In his closing speech at Cambridge Crown Court, prosecutor David Matthew told jurors that in the immediate aftermath of the crash, Robertson had told officers: “I was in the car that caused it. I feel so guilty and ashamed. I just didn’t look.”

He told them they would have to decide "where on the slope of dementia" Robertson had been in January 2021, and ask whether it had got to a stage where she did not know what she was doing.

The legal definition of insanity was that she did not know what she was doing, or did not know what she was doing was wrong by the standards of any reasonable person, Mr Matthew told jurors.

Robertson of Stables Yard, Waterbeach, denies the charge.

James Leonard, defending, said in his closing speech that it was "obvious" Robertson's driving "fell below the standard of a reasonable and competent driver".

But he said that Robertson was "ill-equipped to negotiate" the junction due to her dementia, and she was unaware of this as she was undiagnosed at the time.

"She's trying to be safe but she just doesn't have the presence of mind to be safe," Mr Leonard said.

Earlier in the trial, jurors were shown footage of moments leading up to the crash recorded on a dashcam fitted in the van, showing that it had been driven properly.

• Dashcam footage shows Robertson pulling into the van's path, but stops before it mounts the pavement

The court also heard that the van driver, Andrew Freestone, had less than half a second to react to Robertson's car pulling into his path.

After the collision the van mounted the pavement where Mrs Thorold was walking her son in his pram.

Louis was killed instantly in the crash and his mother was seriously injured. She was in a coma for 10 days and spent a total of four months in hospital.

Jurors have also heard from a professor of cognitive of behavioural neurology, who said that he would have immediately advised anyone with Robertson's symptoms not to drive.

He said MRI scans had shown showed "shrinkage" of a part of the brain associated with memory and language, and that isolation exacerbated by the pandemic may have delayed her being diagnosed.

Judge Mark Bishop indicated that he would send the jury out to begin their deliberations on Thursday morning.

The trial continues.

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