Brave daughters address mother's Sunderland e-bike killer in court as he is locked up for zebra crossing death

Horrific video footage shows the moment Billy Stokoe, 19, from Sunderland, smashed into much-loved Gloria Stephenson, from the city’s Silksworth area, as she walked over a pedestrian crossing with her daughter’s dog on May 16 last year.

Hooded and masked Stokoe, who was driving a non-road-worthy bike without a licence or insurance, was caught on dashcam footage briefly returning to look at the body of three-times widowed Gloria before fleeing from the scene once a passer-by handed him back his phone.

He then headed to a friend’s house to conceal the bike and change his clothes.

Heart-rending victim impact statements were read out by Gloria’s devastated daughters during a sentencing hearing at Newcastle Crown Court.

Lisa Tench, whose dog her mum was walking, described in her statement how she received a call from a witness at 1pm.

“I could never have imagined the horror that would face me when I arrived at the scene just 10 minutes later,” she wrote.

“Mam was lying in the road where you had left her, stripped of her dignity, her clothes cut off by paramedics trying to resuscitate her.

“To witness your mam lying there, covered in blood, bruised and battered and with her right leg amputated below the knee, just hanging on by a piece of skin, is an image that will haunt me until the day I die. I relive it every time I drive over that crossing.

“I relive it in my nightmares. I relive it every time I must face you in court.

“My son and I watched helplessly as the Air Ambulance doctors tried their best to save my mam.

"But the injuries you had inflicted on her were too severe for her to survive.”

She said her mum had walked to the zebra crossing in the city’s Burdon Road ‘thinking it was the sensible thing to do’.

“It would have been, had she not encountered you on that day,” she continued.

“You, on your illegal, defective bike. You, speeding. You, on your phone. You, under the influence of cannabis. Mam didn't stand a chance.

“You hit her with such ferocity that you catapulted her feet away from the crossing, inflicting those horrific injuries on her and injuring my dog.

“You drove off and left her there to die.

“Mam was fit, active and fiercely independent. She did not deserve to die when she did. It was not her time.

“Mam should have died peacefully in her bed surrounded by her family but because of you, she instead succumbed to a horrifically violent death, suffering from unimaginable physical and emotional pain.

“Mam didn't want to die. She tried so hard to breathe. I begged her not to leave me, she tried with tears running down her cheeks, but her body had suffered too much trauma, there was nothing left.”

The victim personal statements referenced how Stokoe had tried to have his bail conditions removed so he could watch Sunderland in the Championship play-off final at Wembley on May 24 last year and had also wanted to go on a family holiday.

“You have shown no remorse, or even apologised for killing mam although you have had plenty of opportunities to do so. You have no moral compass,” added Lisa.

“You are not a victim of your circumstances, you are a victim of your own choices and behaviours.

“I will hate you until my last breath.”

Facing Stokoe in court, Julie Francis, the eldest of Gloria’s four daughters, described how her mum had suffered tragedy in her life, having been widowed three times and once giving birth to a full-term baby knowing it was stillborn.

“She was a resilient and courageous woman,” she said.

Julie said her mum was ‘intelligent, confident and ambitious’, having had a successful NHS career managing a department of 180 staff in the 1970s.

“She had a zest for life that did not fade or diminish with age, she was vital and vivacious until the day you killed her.

“Our mam was a beautiful woman, looking good was effortless to her, in fact she was known as 'Glamorous Gloria'.

“But, much more importantly, she was a good person, with strong moral principles which she tried to live her life by.

“She was never afraid to speak out or to challenge wrongdoing. When you killed our mam you took a life that was good, that had purpose, that actually gave more than it took.

“She was our role model. She overcame adversity in her life, and now, we strive to follow her example and stay strong as we try to come to terms with not only her loss but the brutal way in which she died.

“Her 13 grandchildren are utterly heartbroken, they all adored her and she them.

“To say that our lives have been torn apart by her loss is a complete understatement.

“It would be difficult enough to cope with her death had she died as one would expect of age-related causes, surrounded by her devoted family.

“But mam had years left to live and to lose her as we did, mown down by someone who clearly has no regard for the law, no consideration for the impact of his lawlessness on individuals nor the wider community, and then, to drive off and leave her dying at the side of the road as if she was nothing is just too much to bear.

“Our mam’s death was not instantaneous, I don't know how long it took for her to die, I don't know if it was 30 seconds or 30 minutes.

“But I do know that in that time she suffered, she must have been terrified and she fought for her breath because she will not have wanted to die.

“You drove off and left our beautiful, clever, courageous Mam to die at the side of the road like she was a piece of rubbish in the gutter.

“Our grief and anger, our righteous anger, is overwhelming. And this anger has been compounded by your total lack of remorse.

“You killed our Mam on the 16th May, almost immediately you applied to have your bail restrictions removed, once to watch Sunderland play at Wembley on the 24th May and then to travel abroad for a holiday.

“You continued to post on various social media sites until you appeared at the magistrates' court in January.

“How could you kill our mam and then even think about football or holidays? What type of person are you?

“One year ago tomorrow was the day you killed her, but we still have not been able to even begin to grieve for her, instead we've had to worry about facing you and your family in court on four separate occasions before you finally admitted responsibility for her death.”

Stokoe, of no fixed address, was sentenced to six years and nine months after admitting causing death by dangerous driving, causing death while unlicensed and for causing death while uninsured.

He was also banned from driving for eight years and four months and until he has passed his extended driving test, having only owned a provisional licence.

Family and friends wrote letters to the judge saying Stokoe, who was on a bricklayers’ course until the incident, was a ‘loving, vulnerable’ person and that Gloria’s death had had a ‘profound’ effect on him.