A teenage driver high on cocaine killed a mum-of-three after smashing into her outside a Wigan pub. Jacob Gaskell, who also injured two other pedestrians when he mounted the pavement in Ormskirk Road, Pemberton, had been inhaling laughing gas from a balloon at the wheel of his Land Rover Freelander before the hit-and-run crash.
The incident happened on the evening of April 8 - the day before Gaskell's 19th birthday and just two months after he was handed a suspended sentence for a previous dangerous driving offence. Cowardly Gaskell then fled the scene on foot as 44-year-old teacher Laura Hazeldine lay dying outside pub Number 15.
Gaskell, of Marlbrough Avenue, Ince, has been jailed for nine years at Bolton Crown Court. He will also be banned from driving for a further 10 years upon his eventual release from prison.
