Electric motorbike teen detained for killing gran

A teenager who killed a beloved and "vivacious" grandmother and left her lying in the road "like rubbish" after hitting her with an illegal electric motorbike has been detained for more than six years.

Billy Stokoe had taken cannabis and was using his mobile phone when he ploughed into Gloria Stephenson as she crossed a road in Sunderland, then rode away, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

The 86-year-old's daughters said she had a "zest for life" and "selfish" Stokoe compounded their grief and "overwhelming righteous anger" by going to football matches and planning holidays days after killing her.

Stokoe, who was 18 at the time of the crash in May 2025, admitted causing death by dangerous driving.

The mother of four daughters and 13 grandchildren, was walking a family dog when she used a zebra crossing on Burdon Road at about 13:00 BST on 16 May, prosecutor Michael Bunch said.

While traffic on one side stopped to let her cross, Stokoe drove the off-road electronic motorbike, which was not road legal and was in a poor condition, straight into her, making no attempt to stop or swerve, the court heard.

Dashcam footage shown to the court showed the collision, with balaclava-clad Stokoe being knocked off his bike, then getting back on and riding away after looking at his victim lying on the crossing.

Passers by tried to help but paramedics confirmed she died at the scene.

Stokoe, of Mayo Drive in Sunderland, drove to a friend's house where he ditched the bike and changed his clothes, before going home and telling his mother, who took him to the police station, the court heard.

He was found to be three times the driving limit for cannabis and CCTV showed him using a mobile phone for at least half a mile up to the crash, the court heard.

The bike was in a poor condition with the only brake lever being on the left handle, the side he was holding the phone on, Bunch said.

His victim's eldest daughter told the court her mother, who had been widowed three times and had a successful career in the NHS, was resilient and courageous, intelligent, confident and ambitious with a "zest for life".

She was "vital and vivacious" until the day Stokoe killed her, she said, and was known as "glamorous Gloria" and had "strong moral principles".

"When you killed our mam, you took a life that was good, that had purpose, that gave more than it took," she told Stokoe.

He drove off and "left our beautiful, clever courageous mam to die at the side of the road like she was a piece of rubbish in the gutter", her daughter said.

"Our righteous anger is overwhelming, compounded by your total lack of remorse," she told Stokoe.

Eight days after killing her mother, "selfish" Stokoe went to Wembley to watch Sunderland play and soon applied for his bail to be amended so he could go abroad on holiday, she said, adding he regularly posted about his activities on social media.