A TEENAGER described the moment a car suddenly appeared over the brow of a hill on a playing field striking a friend sitting next to her.

The 15-year-old girl was viewed by a jury at Durham Crown Court giving her interview to police the day after the death of Ian Gourley.

Her video-taped interview was played to the court on the second day of the trial of 22-year-old Dean English, who is alleged to have been the driver of a stolen Ford Escort, which struck Ian on the Pony Fields, off Eden Lane, in Peterlee, east Durham.

Ian, of Lakemore, Peterlee, was declared dead in hospital in Hartlepool an hour after suffering head injuries in the incident, shortly before 8.30pm on November 19, last year.

The girl told the court that she, Ian and another 15-year-old friend were sitting or lying on grass just over the brow of a hill on the Pony Fields.

She told a detective interviewing her: "I didn't hear the car engine or anything, but I saw the lights and then heard the bang."

The girl said she felt the car tyre brush the side of her leg, but it struck Ian, causing him to roll down the hill.

Asked what happened next, she said: "The car just drove off. It didn't stop or anything."

She and the other friend ran for help from their families, living nearby.

A short time later she said she saw smoke coming from some waste land less than a mile away.

The prosecution claims that after striking Ian and driving off, Mr English set fire to the car, in a ravine behind Yoden Crescent, in nearby Horden.

Earlier, the trial heard evidence from witnesses who saw the car being driven at speed in the vicinity, two of whom named Dean English as being the driver.

Mr English, of Basingstoke Road, Peterlee, denies causing death by dangerous driving and arson of the car.

The trial continues today.