Electric motorbike teen detained for killing gran on zebra crossing

The daughter of a beloved and "vivacious" grandmother has told the teenage electric motorbike rider who left her dying in the road: "I will hate you until my last breath."

Billy Stokoe had taken cannabis and was using a mobile phone when he ploughed into Gloria Stephenson on a zebra crossing in Sunderland, then rode away, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Dashcam footage of the crash showed the balaclava-clad Stokoe being knocked off his bike, then riding away after looking at his 86-year-old victim lying on the crossing.

Stokoe, who was 18 at the time of the crash in May 2025, admitted causing death by dangerous driving and was sentenced to almost seven years in youth detention.

The victim, who was a mother to four daughters and had 13 grandchildren, had a "zest for life", her family said.

Outside court her eldest daughter Julie Francis said the family were "absolutely furious and so disappointed" at the sentence given to Stokoe.

"He killed our mam, he left the scene," she said.

"He tried to hide the evidence and he has shown no remorse."

Francis said they had been hoping Stokoe would be given a long sentence "as a message, because we all know that these bikes are illegal".

Gloria Stephenson had been walking a family dog when she used a zebra crossing in Burdon Road at about 13:00 BST on 16 May, prosecutor Michael Bunch told the court.

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.

As the teenager fled the crash site, 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.

Francis earlier told the court her mother, who had been widowed three times and had 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.

"At a time when we were paralysed by grief, you were just carrying on with your life," she said, adding: "What type of person are you?"

In a statement read to the court, another of the daughters said her mother made the "sensible" choice to use the zebra crossing but "did not stand a chance" due to Stokoe's choices.

She said her mother was "fit, active and fiercely independent" and it was "not her time" to die.

"You have no moral compass," she told Stokoe. "I will hate you until my last breath."

Judge Robert Adams said Stokoe had not set out that day to harm anyone but he caused the death of a "much-loved lady" and would "have to live with what he had done for the rest of his life".

Stokoe's family said he had shown remorse and been devastated by the crash, the judge said.

He was sentenced to a total of six years and nine months in youth detention and was banned from driving for eight years, four months and two weeks. He must also pass an extended test.

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