A woman on trial accused of three attempted murders has pled guilty to the lesser charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving while intoxicated.
Donna Stewart from Perth was on trial accused of driving at high speed while nearly twice the drink-drive limit, before ploughing her Mercedes C220 into the side of an Inverness branch of William Hill.
Three men were in the vehicle when it collided with the stone wall of the building on Grant Street on January 21 2021.
The 46-year-old had been accused of trying to murder her passengers, Stephen MacDonald, John Fraser and her partner, Hugh Lowther.
She was also accused of two counts of threatening or abusive behaviour, one assault, one charge of driving dangerously and one charge of driving with excess alcohol (99mgs/ 50).
Guilty pleas accepted
At the High Court in Aberdeen on Wednesday, Stewart, of McCallum Court, entered a plea of guilty to the alternative charges of causing serious injury to her three passengers by driving dangerously while intoxicated and driving at excessive speed.
The charges go on to state, due to intoxication, she failed to negotiate a junction on Lower Kessock Street and mounted a pavement before smashing into a building at high speed.
Not guilty pleas were accepted on all remaining charges.
Continuing Stewart’s bail, Sheriff Graham Buchanan told her: “In these circumstances where the trial is no longer going to carry on and where you have tendered acceptable pleas of guilty, I will adjourn until tomorrow.”
A narrative of the circumstances will be read out by advocate depute John Macpherson in court on Thursday morning.
On the first day of the trial, jurors heard from, Kerri-Ann Goodfellow, who witnessed the crash.
Ms Goodfellow, who was close by when the Mercedes-Benz collided with the wall of the bookmakers, claimed when she reached the vehicle there was a “strong smell of alcohol coming from the car”.
She also judged Stewart’s vehicle to be travelling at a speed of between 50 and 70mph at the time of the crash, although this claim was questioned by defence advocate Janice Green.
Ms Goodfellow also claimed she saw a woman in a pink jacket rummaging through the pockets of one of the injured passengers as he lay injured within the car.
The woman is understood to have left the crash site before police and emergency services arrived.
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