A DRIVER who killed a motorcyclist in a crash on a country road walked free from court yesterday after a judge said it happened in “an act of momentary inadvertence”.

Gemma Hansom sobbed in the dock as she was spared a prison sentence for causing the death of Darlington postal worker David Morse in North Yorkshire a year ago.

Mr Morse was riding with three friends on Spring Lane, near Richmond, when he was hit by Hansom’s Toyota Yaris which briefly drifted onto the opposite side of the road.

Teesside Crown Court heard yesterday the 23-year-old nursery worker suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and will not drive again until it is treated.

Her barrister, Alan Armbrister, told the court: “Miss Hansom will have to live with the untimely death in this case for which she is extremely sorry and remorseful.”

Married Mr Morse, 36, from Barnard Castle, had been riding in Teesdale with his friends before the accident happened at Drystones on June 29.

In a victim impact statement, his wife Sarah said although she accepted Hansom did not set out that day to deliberately cause an accident, she cannot sympathise with her.

“This has ruined my life,” she said. “She has all her family around her and doesn’t have to wake up in her bed and miss the person who should be lying next to her.”

Hansom, of The Green, Ravensworth, near Richmond, admitted causing death by careless driving, and was given a twoyear community order with 200 hours of unpaid work.

Mr Recorder Bourne-Arton also banned her from the roads for two years and ordered her to take an extended driving test, and pay the prosecution costs of £1,500.

He told her: “Mr Morse was still a young man. He had a family and many friends, who face a life without him, and you will have to face knowing you have taken a life. No sentence I can pass can ever begin to help his family and friends in their loss. It may be that no sentence will be considered to be adequate compensation.