Man who drove into crowd of people found guilty of murdering innocent bystander

A convicted drug-dealer who killed a 22-year-old woman when he deliberately drove into a crowd of pedestrians has been found guilty of murder and attempting to cause grievous bodily harm.

Stephen McHugh, who has never had a driving licence, had taken cocaine and downed six beers and ten double shots of spirits before driving his Volvo onto a footpath in Oswestry, Shropshire. A two-week trial at Stafford Crown Court was told innocent bystander Rebecca Steer was crushed underneath the vehicle near a takeaway and died of “catastrophic” injuries.

McHugh, originally from Fazakerley in Liverpool but living near Oswestry at the time of the killing last October, admitted manslaughter and assault, claiming he was trying to frighten pedestrians after an earlier altercation nearby. Jurors deliberated for eight hours and 39 minutes over three days before convicting McHugh by majority 11-1 verdicts of murder and trying to wound a male pedestrian who was also knocked down.

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Jurors at the 28-year-old’s trial were not told that he has previous convictions related to drugs and the seizure of sawn-off shotgun in Merseyside in 2019. At the start of the hearing, prosecutor Kevin Hegarty KC said McHugh, of Artillery Road, Park Hall, near Oswestry, was driving a gold-coloured Volvo in Willow Street at about 2.45am on Sunday October 9 last year.

CCTV shown to the court captured McHugh stopping in the road and exchanging words with a group of people near the Grill Out takeaway. Mr Hegarty told the court: “At that moment Rebecca Steer was crossing Willow Street. All of a sudden, as she was crossing, the Volvo shot backwards. It narrowly missed her.”

Jurors were told Ms Steer