A hit-and-run driver took a handful of valium pills before knocking down and killing an Angus pensioner, a court has heard.
Paul Mowatt, 34, of Forfar admitted causing death by dangerous driving when he appeared at the High Court in Glasgow on Friday.
He hit 89-year-old Kenneth Robertson while he was walking along the B9113 Forfar to Montrose road in August 2013. Mowatt will learn his fate when he is sentenced next month.
A neighbour recalled the shock of hearing news of the accident on the unlit and twisty section of road.
He said: “Mr Robertson was a very active man and would go on frequent walks.
“I had spoken to him a couple of times the week he died and he was on great form. It was a big shock when I heard the news of the accident.
“It is a bad bit of road where he was hit at that time of year. He was a very nice man who is missed.”
Mowatt picked up his friend Shona Laird and her young child in Forfar on August 30 2013.
Ms Laird got in the car despite seeing him smoke what she believed was a cannabis joint before they set off.
As he drove, Mowatt then swallowed what appeared to be blue valium pills that he poured from a medicine bottle.
He was later described as looking “dopey” as he veered a number of times towards the verge.
Ms Laird questioned his “fitness to drive” but did not ask to be let out of the car.
Mr Robertson, who used a stick, was meanwhile on his regular walk along the B9113 road near his home at Wemyss Farm.
Mowatt was later on that road at about 7pm when Ms Laird spotted the pensioner walking towards them.
Prosecutor David Nicolson said: “She then heard several thumps on her side of Mowatt’s car.
“She looked back… and told him that she thought he had hit someone.
“Mowatt replied: ‘I think it was a post.’
“He kept driving. He did not make his way to a police station to report the incident.”
Passers-by spotted someone had been struck and rushed to help.
Mowatt turned his car around a short distance away and headed back to the scene.
He noticed people helping Mr Robertson and said: “I have hit somebody” but then drove off again.
Police were later contacted by a couple who were “extremely alarmed” at Mowatt’s erratic driving on the A90 towards Dundee.
Mowatt eventually dropped Ms Laird and her child off before heading to a friend’s home in Arbroath.
Mr Robertson was meantime rushed to hospital having initially suffered significant leg fractures.
He also had injuries to his neck and ribs.
He remained stable in hospital but had a large stroke a few weeks later.
Mr Robertson never recovered and he died on September 22 2013 a few weeks before his 90th birthday.
The court heard Mowatt was arrested after police traced his car.
He told officers he initially thought he had struck a deer before realising he had hit a person.
Mowatt added: “From what I can remember I came around the corner and ‘bang’, he was at the side of the road.”
Crash investigators concluded Mr Robertson had been thrown on to the road verge after being struck by Mowatt’s car as he walked down the road.
Jonathan Crowe, defending, told the court Mowatt had previously “lost everything” as a result of a serious motorcycle accident 10 years ago.
Mr Crowe added: “He turned to drugs for solace and to self-medicate. His life spiralled downwards. He simply wasted his life away.”
The advocate said there was “not a day” Mowatt did not think about his “stupidity” that resulted in the death of Mr Robertson.
Judge Lord Burns deferred sentencing until March 4 at the High Court in Aberdeen.