A SENTENCE handed to a gym instructor after he ran over a man’s body on Hallfields Road last summer and drove away to avoid being breathalysed has been slammed by the victim’s son.

Steve Donoghue was declared dead after being hit by a blue Mercedes CLK230 driven by 54-year-old John Murphy in Orford – although the gym instructor and former amateur boxer did not cause Mr Donoghue’s death.

The 58-year-old, described by his son Wayne Donoghue as ‘a man who would do anything for anyone’, was seen by witnesses staggering into Hallfields Road close to its junction with Withers Avenue shortly after midnight on Monday August 10.

Warrington Guardian:

While he was lying motionless in the street, Murphy was driving along Hallfields Road from Norris Street in the direction of Orford Green – a court has heard that witnesses said he ‘seemed to be going very fast’.

Murphy hit the body of Mr Donoghue, dragging him some metres before rolling underneath the vehicle.

St Peter’s Way resident Murphy turned his car around and returned to the scene of the accident but ‘panicked’ and fled.

On Thursday March 31, Halton Magistrates Court heard that Murphy had frequented three town centre pubs on the afternoon of Sunday August 9, drinking four-and-a-half pints – a previous court hearing had described him as drinking six to eight pints.

Murphy went home in the early evening and went to bed, but the court heard that he could not sleep and went for a drive, during the course of which the accident occurred – later on in the day he voluntarily handed himself into police and was ‘open and honest’ with them.

Described as a ‘fitness fanatic who exercises day-in, day out’, the court heard that Murphy, who had his head bowed throughout proceedings, was ‘absolutely mortified’ by the incident which will ‘have an impact on him for the rest of his life’.

He had admitted failing to stop after an accident and failing to report an accident to the police at Halton Magistrates’ Court on March 9.

Members of his and Mr Donoghue’s family were present in court as he was sentenced to 24 weeks imprisonment, reduced to 16 for his early guilty plea and suspended for a year.

Murphy was also ordered to serve 200 hours unpaid work, banned from driving for a year and fined a total of £165.

Mr Donoghue, who grew up in St Helens and was a former mechanic, had five children and five adopted children – it is not yet clear what the cause of his death was.

Speaking to the Warrington Guardian outside court, Wayne Donoghue said that justice had not been done.

He said: “Personally I don’t think that they’ve sentenced him right – he should have got at least 24 weeks imprisonment but that’s justice for you.

“But at the end of the day even if he did do 24 weeks he’ll get out of prison but I’ll never see my dad again – you can’t replace somebody’s life with a few weeks in prison or a fine or a ban.

“I don’t think we’ve got justice.”