Drink-driver who murdered 22-year-old in Shropshire jailed for life

A man has been jailed for life after he drove into a crowd of pedestrians, murdering a 22-year-old woman in Shropshire.

Stephen McHugh, 28, was found guilty on Thursday 4 May following a two-week trial at Stafford Crown Court.

He was also convicted of attempted grievous bodily harm of 18-year-old Kyle Roberts for which McHugh will serve four years to run concurrently.

In the early hours of Sunday 9 October McHugh drove at a crowd of pedestrians outside the Grill Out takeaway on Willow Road in Oswestry. 

McHugh had snorted about eight lines of cocaine and downed six beers and ten double shots of spirits before driving his Volvo S60 on to the footpath.

His car hit 22-year-old Rebecca Steer, causing catastrophic injuries. She later died.

When giving his sentence, Mr Justice Andrew Baker said McHugh reacted to verbal abuse directed at his erratic driving by treating pedestrians "like they were human skittles".

Describing the murder of Ms Steer as an outrage, the judge told McHugh: "It could so easily have been much worse for the general group on the pavement.

"You were drunk and high on cocaine and in your own words, you had drunk lager and spirits and had cocaine up to five minutes before the incident.

"You were not a qualified driver and you ignored the words of your passengers Alex Coulson and Kyle Dwyer, and you told them to shut up.

"You, as the prosecution said, used your car as a weapon as you were too cowardly to get out of the car and you used it as a battering ram.

"You injured Kyle Roberts, and finally you have a history of offending with drugs and firearms.

"Those aggravating factors outweigh the mitigating factors and you will serve 18 years."

The judge, who ordered the destruction of McHugh's Volvo, heard family victim impact statements telling how Ms Steer wanted to become a police detective and was in the final year of a criminal justice course at Liverpool John Moores University.

In one of the statements, Ms Steer's mother described Rebecca as the "most loving, talented and kind-hearted person who you could have wished to know".