Drug biker who blinded woman in crash jailed

The rider of an unroadworthy motorbike who left a woman partially blind when he crashed into her while high on cocaine has been jailed.

Gary Denley, 22, was speeding when he hit the woman and her partner as they crossed the road in North Shields, North Tyneside, in May.

The mother-of-two was left in "excruciating pain" and faced a "complicated" rehabilitation with the effects life-changing, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Denley, of Avon Avenue, who was nearly 10 times the drug drive limit, admitted offences including causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He was jailed for three years and eight months.

He was seen on CCTV riding the orange scrambler-type bike around North Shields shortly before the crash on Albion Road on 11 May, prosecutor Kevin Wardlaw said.

A witness, who saw him riding on the pavement near a beer garden filled with families, said Denley had "no thought" of anybody else.

The couple had checked the road was clear and were partly across when Denley roared up on the bike and hit the woman, the court heard.

A passing nurse stopped to give first aid to the unconscious woman, who was bleeding from her ear, had an obvious broken leg and whose face was swelling.

She was left permanently blind on one eye.

In a statement read to the court, the woman said she was a totally different person who struggled to control her emotions and feared people would no longer like her.

She said she had found the whole ordeal terrifying, adding she feared she may have been paralysed.

Denley, who was also injured, was found to be under the influence of cocaine while the bike, which he had recently bought, was "not roadworthy", Mr Wardlaw said.

As well as having no insurance or registration plate, the vehicle's catalogue of faults included under-inflated tyres and completely defunct rear brakes, the prosecutor said.

At the time of the crash, Denley was under a suspended sentence imposed in February last year for dangerous driving, having driven a car through a red light and over pavements in a bid to evade police.

Judge Gavin Doig said it was "pure luck" the woman was not killed and Denley had "changed her life forever" and "irretrievably" with his "selfish actions".

Denley was also banned from driving for four years and 10 months and will have to pass an extended driving test.

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