Speeding driver, 31, who hit and killed woman, 89, on mobility scooter after taking cocaine is jailed for four years

Daily Mail​

10-07-2025

A speeding driver has been jailed for four years after ploughing into an 89-year-old great-grandmother as she crossed a road on her mobility scooter while heading to buy vegetables for a family dinner.
Rayner Middleton, 31, pleaded guilty to causing the 'tragic and senseless' death of Doreen Raynor by careless driving in a city centre while she had an excess of a cocaine metabolite in her body.
A court heard she was 'aggressively' travelling at almost 50mph in a 30mph zone at the wheel of an Audi when she struck the pensioner.
The great-great-grandmother, who was just a month shy of her 90th birthday, was rushed to hospital following the incident in March 2023 but pronounced dead hours later after suffering multiple injuries.
Sentencing Middleton, Judge Steven Coupland said the victim's family's future 'will forever be marked by an empty space at the table and a blank space in photographs.'
He told the defendant: 'I accept you did not set out to kill or harm anyone that day but the reality is you should not have been driving.
'The by-product of your cocaine use was still in your body and was twice the legal limit. You chose to drive in a way that was wholly inappropriate.'
Prosecution barrister Nicholas Bleaney told the court, filled with members of both the defendant's and victim's families that Mrs Raynor 'had some mobility issues due to an old injury.'
He added: 'She used an electric mobility scooter on most days, this being a device to ensure she retains as much of her independence as possible.'
He told the court that Mrs Raynor left her home at 9.45am on the day of her death to buy vegetables to make a Sunday dinner for her family.
She had just passed Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena when she was hit on March 4 2023, causing her 'to be thrown out of the scooter causing serious injuries', Mr Bleaney said.
She died later that day at Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham.
Nottingham Crown Court heard Middleton, who sat dabbing her eyes with a tissue in the dock of the city's crown court, consumed drink and drugs the night before she went to pick up her son.
She accepted drinking glasses of baileys and rum the night before, but tested below the legal limit for alcohol when breathalysed at the scene.
But the court heard Middleton, of Arnold, Nottingham, had more than double the legal limit of benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, in her system at the time of the crash.
The court heard that the traffic lights turned amber as the defendant was driving through the crossing, while the pedestrian light for Mrs Raynor was red when she entered the road on her scooter.
Mr Bleaney told how shortly after 9.45am, another driver saw Middleton, who was on her way to pick up her eight-year-old son from her mother's house to take him to a football match, park up at a set of traffic lights in her black Audi A1 before accelerating away and pulling in front of his car.
Mr Bleaney said: 'He saw the lights change and Mrs Raynor crossing from right to left, and saw the brake lights of the defendant's Audi come on. But there was a collision that caused her to be thrown out of her scooter and suffer very serious injuries.'
The prosecutor added that Middleton told police at the scene: 'I was basically driving up here, as I have come the lady has driven out so I have hit her.'
The court heard Middleton, a single mother-of-one, was travelling at 46mph before the accident, and accepted she activated her brakes at around 43mph - hitting Mrs Raynor, a widow, at approximately 27mph.
He added that Middleton, a paid carer for her mother, was interviewed by police three times and denied taking recreational drugs, also claiming she was driving at 26 or 27mph - something Mr Bleaney said was 'demonstrably not true'.
Middleton also denied she was 'rushing' to pick up her son, but Mr Bleaney said the timings she had provided 'suggests there was some rushing going on'.
He accepted Mrs Raynor had crossed the road while the pedestrian light showed a 'red man' - but said: 'The sad fact is that if she had been travelling at speed she should have done Mrs Raynor would have got across the junction.
'She was driving at a speed that is inappropriate for the prevailing road conditions. It is not the Crown's case that this lady is unfit to drive. The key feature of this case is speed.'
Two of Mrs Raynor's children read out their victim impact statements at court, with daughter Melanie Frearson telling the judge she was 'horrified' at being told what speed Middleton had been driving at.
She added: 'Our mum was known to everyone as 'Mar' and she had 13 children in total - one of them was an abandoned child - but she still took her in which tells you about the sort of person she was.
'She suffered sadness and tragedy but despite this, she was the most kind person, she did not judge another person.
'She would always say 'they are someone's child'. She was the kindest, caring, most giving and loving person and she was the strongest person you could wish for.'
Mrs Raynor's eldest living son, Michael Raynor, described his mother's death as 'tragic and senseless'.
He said: 'Your reckless and irresponsible decision to drive under these conditions shattered our family and left a gaping hole in the lives of all who had known her.'
Defending Middleton, Simon Eckersley said: 'Plainly she was going too fast. Had she been travelling at an appropriate speed, there still would have been a collision, but a collision with less impact.'
Mr Eckersley added 'She always denied and she continues to deny driving while unfit through drugs, and the Crown now do not assert she was unfit through drugs.
'The key factor in this case was her speed. In her pre-sentence report she now acknowledges what she's done and the report author recognises she is remorseful. She genuinely wishes she could undo the harm she's caused.'
The judge also disqualified Middleton from driving for four years.
Mrs Raynor began her working life at Nottingham Children's Hospital at the age of 18 before moving on to the city's Savoy Hotel. She then became a staty-at-home mother.