A MOTORIST who accepted taking cocaine a few days before a collision with an elderly pedestrian was warned by a judge today: "Prepare yourself for a custodial sentence".

Dale Hilton, 42, of Heol Kenyon, Johnstown, had denied causing death by careless driving in a Citroen C2 car when under the influence of a drug on March 2, 2022.

He was found guilty by a jury with a ten to two majority verdict.

The Mold crown court jury heard George Ian Stevenson, 86, was knocked over by a “glancing” blow from the car.

But he spent four hours lying on the cold and wet road waiting for an ambulance to arrive – eventually a single paramedic being sent more than 60 miles to Johnstown from south Gwynedd - and died after going into cardiac arrest.

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The agony for Mr Stevenson’s family was compounded during the trial when they heard a statement from Home Office pathologist Dr Brian Rodgers that earlier major medical intervention “could possibly have altered the outcome.”

The pensioner, who had poor eyesight, died from massive chest trauma.

Then, after Hilton was found guilty, the family and jury were told of his previous record. The court heard it included convictions for drug-driving, one last year.

Judge Niclas Parry said he would be assisted by a pre-sentence report.

He bailed Hilton but banned him from driving. The full length of the ban is yet to be decided.

The judge warned: ”It’s an inevitable custodial sentence and will be of some length.”

Judge Parry told jurors who took four hours and 42 minutes to reach their decision: "Please don’t feel let down by the fact you didn’t know about the character of the defendant when you were deliberating.

“I know that can be a cause of some anger. These matters are thought about very carefully and what you should understand is you have reached your verdict without being in any way influenced by that.”

Judge Parry said :”Something I know will have taxed your minds, the delay in the ambulance service attending on this elderly gentleman. Everybody seems to be agreed it’s almost incredible in the 21st century a man was lying on the road and his life in danger for in excess of three hours and when the ambulance eventually came it came from deepest Gwynedd and took a long time to arrive.”

The judge, however, said people should be “comforted” by the actions of those who work for the ambulance service, praising off-duty paramedics Andrew and Sarah Betts who stopped at the scene and stayed for three hours with Mr Stevenson.

Hilton, who has three children, had told his counsel Brendan O’Leary he hadn’t felt any effects of the cocaine when driving.

Mr Stevenson had been crossing the road at Johnstown and he assumed the pensioner had seen his car.

Cross-examined by prosecutor John Philpotts about how much cocaine he had taken, Hilton replied: “Not a lot.”

The prosecutor pointed out the cocaine breakdown product in his blood was almost five times the legal limit.

Mr Philpotts suggested to Hilton :”You had plenty of time to avoid him.”

Hilton insisted :”No.”

Mud hadn’t obscured his windscreen view and he was doing about 18mph at the time of the collision, the defendant said.

The prosecutor alleged: "It’s momentary carelessness.”

Mr O’Leary urged the jury to look beyond the drugs and examine the “wider evidence.”

He said there was no evidence of erratic driving.

“When you look at the actual evidence there’s simply not enough for you to be sure that the defendant drove carelessly,” counsel declared.

Opening the case, Mr Philpotts said Mr Stevenson had been knocked down shortly before 7.30pm.

Despite regular reminders of the urgency of the situation, the ambulanceman based at Tywyn wasn’t tasked until 10.01pm.

He arrived at 11.37pm. Three off-duty paramedics tried to save the pensioner when his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he was taken to hospital at Wrexham.

Mr Stevenson’s granddaughter Ellie Williams, 34, said outside court: ”It’s a heartbreaking situation. My grandad could still be here if help arrived earlier.”

Her Change.org petition states: ”The wait on ambulances is becoming a matter of life or death and something drastically needs to change, it’s happening all too often in the North Wales area.

“Paramedics go to work to help the people most in need and they are being prevented from doing this as there are no ambulances available and even when getting patients to the hospitals they are queued up waiting outside as there are no beds for patients.”