A DRINK and drug driver who killed a 12-year-old girl in a hit and run collision has been jailed for five years and nine months.

Gary Smith’s Astra hit Sherburn High pupil Kaitlin Mitchell just after she got out of a school bus on her home street, West Acres in Byram, at 3.30pm, said Rachael Landin, prosecuting.

As she lay fatally injured on September 28, 2017, the bus driver got out, other drivers stopped and other pupils and pedestrians gathered round, all wanting to help.

“All that was in absolute contrast to the actions of the defendant. The defendant didn’t wait, he didn’t stop his car, he didn’t call an ambulance,” she said.

Instead, in a car badly damaged on the driver’s side, he drove off to Knottingley where he dumped it and called police at 3.44pm, claiming it had been stolen.

York Crown Court heard on Friday that Kaitlin’s grandmother Kathleen Mitchell, alerted by a boy screaming, ran out of her house to see Kaitlin lying on the ground.

“I said ‘are you all right, darling?’,” she said in a statement read to the court. “She didn’t reply, she just looked up at me and her head went back and she lost consciousness.”

Ms Landin said Kaitlin never regained consciousness. She was rushed into intensive care at Leeds General Infirmary and died a few days later on October 6, 2017, after her life support was switched off.

Mrs Mitchell said: “I hate the driver involved in the collision. He took her away from us. We would have thought differently if he had had the decency to stop at the scene. He has taken our much loved daughter, taken her from us and he couldn’t take the bother to see she got the attention she deserved.”

She said Kaitlin was a “happy go lucky” tomboy who was the “life and soul” of the family home, which she filled with “noise and happiness”.

She had dreamt of being a vet and loved horse riding and animals.

Smith, 37, formerly of West Acres, Byram and now of Summerfield Drive, Knottingley, pleaded guilty to causing death by drink driving, perverting the course of justice and drug driving.

Jailing Smith for five years and nine months and banning him from driving for seven and a half years, Judge Andrew Stubbs QC told him: “You had no right to be behind the wheel of that car, and every reason to know at that time of day in the area where you live school children would be present."

In a letter to the judge, Smith wrote: “I cannot put it into words the shame I hold against myself because of this horrific event. My behaviour after the accident makes me ashamed and it is something I will never forgive myself for.”

For him, Kitty Taylor said since the accident he had stopped driving. He had started tackling his alcoholism and his partner had left him. He had also suffered a back injury in a work accident that had left him with permanent discomfort and pain.

Inspector Dave Barf, Senior Investigating Officer with North Yorkshire Police, said: “To drive with both alcohol and illegal drugs in your system is an inherently selfish act.

“I hope that these tragic events remind drivers of the huge responsibility that they hold when they get behind the wheel of a car. If you choose to drink or take drugs and drive you put the lives of everyone around you at risk – not just your own. You will not set out to kill someone, but sadly this case proves that you may.”

The judge commended PC Mark Mullins for his work on the case.