Liam Flaherty hit and killed 19-year-old Ayesha Rahman in a street in Stockport when he was driving with cocaine in his system
A driver who had cocaine in his system ran over a teenager lying in the road when he mistook her for a discarded bag.
Liam Flaherty hit 19-year-old Ayesha Rahman in a street in Stockport after swerving too late to avoid her.
He admitted causing death by careless driving and avoided a jail term in Britain. He is however already serving a prison term in Spain for drugs offences.
Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court heard Ms Rahman had left friends after a night out in the city and was seen walking down the middle of a road before the collision.
Prosecutor Charlotte Crangle said: ‘We can’t say what caused her to be in the middle of the road.
‘People at the scene, including the defendant, said he had clipped her and tried to avoid her.
‘[Her mother] was able to see her in hospital and be with her daughter when she passed away.’
Flaherty, 35, was within the speed limit and stopped at the scene, but was found to have a small amount of cocaine in his system.
He was given a suspended sentence this week but will be returned to Spain, where he is serving a term of five years and one month handed to him for drugs offences last year.
The fatal crash happened on this stretch of the Gatley Road near Stockport in 2015
Ayesha, who suffered serious head and chest injuries in the crash in 2015, was described as ‘clever, arty and beautiful’ by friends.
The court heard Flaherty, of Knutsford, told police he had taken cocaine the day before the collision.
Flaherty’s lawyer Stuart Duke said he did not realise what he saw in the road was a person.
He said: ‘No one will know how she came to be lying in the road on that fateful evening. The defendant says not a day goes by without him thinking about Ayesha.
‘He expresses remorse and regret, he accepts if he had paid more attention he wouldn’t be standing here today.
‘He apologises, no sentence will take away the events of that night.’
Judge Maurice Greene agreed to suspend the sentence, saying: ‘The facts themselves are highly unusual as she was already in the road and you had little time to react.’