A BUS driver described his horror at watching security camera footage of the moment he had unknowingly dragged a pensioner under his bus - only to discover the victim was a colleague's mother.

Robert Harvey spoke after being convicted of careless driving following the death of Jenny Spedding, 86, who suffered multiple injuries when she was dragged under the Arriva vehicle for half-a-mile through Durham City in February, last year.

Harvey, who was fined £750, with £50 costs, and banned by Consett magistrates from driving for a year after admitting the charge, said: "I found out two weeks later it was the mother of Mavis Leftley who was my boss and my friend.

" It is something that I will never be able to forget."

Sharon Nevison, prosecuting, said Harvey was pulling out of the bus station, on his way to East Hedleyhope, when Mrs Spedding, of Local Avenue, Sherburn Hill, near Durham, walked in front of his vehicle.

Security camera footage showed the pensioner step out and "literally disappear", leaving only her two bags, when the bus passed her.

Gordon Gondona, who saw the accident, tried unsuccessfully to alert the driver by blowing his horn, but the bus travelled half-a-mile before Mrs Spedding's body was released.

Harvey, 62, of Langley Park, was later flagged down.

He told police his attention had been drawn by a woman with a child in pushchair crossing the road, and that he had been completely oblivious to the fact he had knocked Mrs Spedding down.

David Lamb, mitigating, said it was a "momentary inattention" that led to tragedy.

He said Harvey felt great remorse and continued to be affected by the incident.

Mavis Leftley, who is the bus company's traffic manager, said after the hearing: "It has been a traumatic time and we are thankful that the trial is over, though I think this sentence has made my mother's life so cheap.

"I find it extremely difficult to come to terms with the fact that she was so tragically killed by a bus driver who was not paying attention to his immediate surroundings.

"Consequently, I lost the opportunity to say a last goodbye."