Witnesses tell of moment pensioner was killed in hit and run

A ‘blood-curdling scream’ was heard before a 75-year-old retired paratrooper was mown down and killed in front of his wife in an apparent road rage attack, a court has heard.

Kenneth Kiley, 75, had got out of his car to exchange insurance details with the driver of a Vauxhall Corsa with which he had collided in Swindon in July last year.

But the driver of the Corsa, who prosecutors say was 24-year-old Dario Carboni, ‘put his foot down’ and sped at Mr Kiley, knocking him to the ground and killing him.

Witnesses today gave harrowing accounts of the incident at a trial where Carboni is accused of murder, manslaughter, and causing death by dangerous driving. He denies the charges, insisting he was not behind the wheel.

Swindon residents Rachel Whetton and her husband Stephen said they were sitting in their back garden when they heard a car accelerating, a ‘blood-curdling’ scream followed by a ‘massive thud’.

Mr Whetton, a neighbour of Mr Kiley and his wife Marion, said: ‘We couldn’t see the car from our garden, but you could tell by the sound of the engine it was going too fast down the road.

‘We could hear the car turn off… and then come back.’

Prosecutors say Dario Carboni was the driver of the car which ploughed into Mr Kiley. He denies he was behind the wheel

She continued: ‘Probably about 30 seconds later it came back going really fast. We could hear the engine revving.

‘That’s when we heard a man shout, and then the most horrendous sound I’ve ever heard in my life.

‘It was the sound of something heavy hitting something soft. There was about a second between the shout and the sound of the hitting.

‘My husband instinctively said: ‘Someone’s been hit by that car’. He just knew.’

Rachel’s husband Stephen added: ‘We could hear the driver just put his foot down, there was no let-off.

‘A couple of seconds later, we heard a blood-curdling scream as if something was going to happen, and then a massive thud.

‘I ran down to the end of the garden and stood on the wall. I didn’t see the car leaving, but I saw a guy in his 70s, with his head on the curb and his feet out in the road.’

Another local resident, Thomas Blackford, said he was in his bedroom watching television when he heard the sound of ‘screeching tyres’.

He said: ‘The first thing I heard was the sound of screeching tyres. I didn’t really think much of it, and continued sitting on my bed. Then a couple of seconds passed, and I heard a loud thud.’

Police pictured of the scene of the killing in Swindon last summer

Mr Blackford said that he phoned the paramedics and, following their instructions, guided his mother on how to perform CPR effectively.

He added: ‘Upon seeing him, I realised that something more sinister had happened. There was blood all over his face, and the skin on his hand was almost worn down to the bone.

‘The only other thing I saw was a navy blue car wing mirror next to the man.’

Carboni claims during the second fatal collision the Corsa was not being driven by him but by Patrick Cunnington – who was also in the car at the time.

The trial, at Bristol Crown Court, continues.