Aberdeenshire woman guilty of causing death of former Art teacher by driving carelessly
A woman's been found guilty of causing the death of another motorist by driving carelessly on the wrong side of a road.
A woman's been found guilty of causing the death of another motorist by driving carelessly on the wrong side of a road.
Pauline Flynn, 36, was on her way to Aberdeen to pick up her boyfriend when her car collided with a Vauxhall Corsa on the A952 on October 3, 2014.
Henry McPherson, 61, who was driving the other vehicle, died and his partner Patricia was seriously injured after their car left the road and crashed into a fence.
Mrs McPherson, 52, was left suspended upside down in her seatbelt when the car landed on its side down the embankment. She was rushed to hospital after firemen cut the roof off of the vehicle to rescue her but her partner died at the scene.
Flynn was charged with causing the death of Mr McPherson, a former art teacher known as Harry, by driving carelessly in her blue Ford Focus C-Max on the rural road.
However, she denied the charge and went on trial at Peterhead Sheriff Court last week.
During the trial, the jury heard Flynn was driving into the city to pick up her then boyfriend after he cancelled plans to travel out to her home in Mintlaw because of bad weather.
One of the first motorists to arrive at the scene of the crash, Katrina Lamb, who works as a counsellor, stopped to help as she was on her way home from a hospital visit.
The 33-year-old said she looked in through the windscreen of the Corsa to see Mrs McPherson suspended from her seatbelt and the male was pinned back in his seat with his eyes flickering.
The vehicle had also landed on a fence post which was sticking through inside of the car.
She said: "She was bleeding from her head and she thought I was stopping her from getting out of the car and she took her seatbelt off and she fell down on to her husband's lap.
"I had to try to tell her to stop moving because her legs were still in the passenger footwell and you could see that she was not very well."
Mrs McPherson is believed to have spent several months in hospital undergoing treatment, suffering multiple bone fractures and a head injury following the two-vehicle smash on the Aberdeenshire road.
She had been on her way home from dropping one of the couple's friends off at her house near Ellon when the tragedy happened.
Giving evidence, Mrs McPherson told the court she could remember the moments leading up to the crash and insisted that the other driver was responsible for the collision.
She said: "I became aware that I was to be in a crash when I saw lights cross from the other carriageway lighting up the central line, the driving line of the road.
"The lights were right in my face.
"The next thing I remember after that is a feeling like I was in a washing machine.
"It was a bit surreal. I felt like I was in a washing machine going round and round and can remember hearing myself screaming."
When she turned to look at her partner, she remembered seeing a look of fear on his face.
She told the court: "I think he knew it wasn't going to end well."
Mr McPherson, her partner of 34 years, was a popular former art teacher who taught at Banff and Buchan College in Fraserburgh. The couple had one daughter.
Flynn, of Mintlaw was found guilty by a jury of nine women and five men by a majority verdict. They took just over an hour to reach their decision.
Sentence was deferred for background reports until October 20th.