A BANNED driver was jailed for six months yesterday - two days after an accident in which a five-year-old girl was badly hurt as she showed off her wedding flower girl's outfit.

Garry Wilkinson stopped after the incident in which Sophie Graham was knocked down, then left the scene.

Yesterday Wilkinson, 30, was jailed and banned from the roads for the third time in less than two years.

Wilkinson, of Wardley, Gateshead, has consistently flouted bans imposed on him by the courts. In 1999, he served a six-month sentence for driving while disqualified and was banned for three years.

But the following year, on his release from prison, he was back behind the wheel and was again banned for three years.

Undeterred, Wilkinson bought himself a G-reg Volvo car just two days before Sophie was hit by the vehicle in a Gateshead street.

Gateshead magistrates were told that Sophie had run into the path of the car. Wilkinson got out and walked to where she lay, then ran away.

Prosecutor David Mayhew said: "The defendant was unable to take any action at the accident. He then failed to report the matter to the police."

Wilkinson was also on bail from Newcastle magistrates court in connection with a burglary charge.

Stephen Earl, mitigating, said Wilkinson did not have a chance to brake when the girl ran out in front of him.

Wilkinson pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified, driving without insurance, failing to report an accident and failing to stop after an accident.

He was jailed for six months for driving while banned and was told he was being sentenced to two months for failing to stop and two months for failing to report the accident, both sentences to run concurrently with the six month sentence.

He was also banned from driving for three years.

Yesterday Sophie was still in desperately ill in hospital and had not regained consciousness.

Sophie's grandmother Hena Armstrong, 54, of Byermoor, County Durham, said: "In my eyes it is disgusting that he only got six months. They should have locked him up and thrown away the key. He is not fit to live in society after what he has done.

"I know it is only driving whilst disqualified but if he had not been on the road our little girl would be fine."

Yesterday her mother, Andrea Graham, 27, said: "We are still waiting and hoping she regains consciousness."