Mother who was ‘rammed' off e-bike sometimes supplied drugs, murder trial told

Glasgow Times

30-05-2025

Jurors at Derby Crown Court were told that 25-year-old Alana Armstrong bought the Sur-Ron off-road electric bike for her boyfriend, which is not legal for road use and is known to be a 'drug-dealing type' bike.
Ms Armstrong, who had one child, could 'barely' fit on the back of the saddle and was not wearing a helmet when the Land Rover Discovery allegedly ploughed into her in Batley Lane, Pleasley, Derbyshire, just after 8pm on November 26 last year.
Keaton Muldoon, 23, who the court was told was a drug dealer, denies her murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Ms Armstrong's boyfriend Jordan Newton-Kay, whose right leg was amputated 15cm above the knee after the crash.
The defendant, of Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, admitted causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving before the trial, the jury was told by prosecutor Sally Howes KC.
The court heard that Mr Newton-Kay was riding his black, orange and blue off-road bike with Ms Armstrong on the back that evening, while a friend was on another bike.
The jury heard that the three stopped at a lay-by in Sampsons Lane, near Pleasley, where the Land Rover was parked, and no words were exchanged before the vehicle spun around and 'chased' them down the country lane.
On Friday, Adrian Langdale KC, defending Muldoon, cross-examined Mr Newton-Kay, who said his girlfriend of four years 'sometimes' supplied cannabis which he drove her around to deliver.
The court heard that before the fatal collision, Ms Armstrong, from Tibshelf, received a message asking if she was available for a 'drop off', but Mr Newton-Kay said he was 'unsure' if they were going to deliver cannabis that evening.
Mr Newton-Kay denied that he thought the 4×4 parked in the field was a police vehicle.
He also denied wearing a balaclava on the evening of the incident and told the court he had not been doing wheelies and pulling out on other drivers before the collision.
Mr Newton-Kay admitted he had smoked cannabis that day, but denied that influenced his recollection of events.
Mr Langdale asked the witness: 'If two people pull up on a dark lane on what appears to be drug-dealing bikes, dressed all in black with masks on – that might be scary for a young man who knows the association, do you agree?', to which Mr Newton-Kay replied: 'Yes.'
Mr Langdale asked the witness, who gave evidence from behind a curtain, whether the bike is designed to carry two people, to which Mr Newton-Kay said: 'No.'
The barrister continued: 'You don't have any helmets on, neither of you. You seemed to suggest to police you didn't, as a general policy, wear helmets.
'You also suggested to the police you would drive, wherever you went, at maximum speed. Forty-six miles an hour to be precise.
'You were suggesting, with no seatbelts, no helmets, no safety gear at all, no brake lights, you were travelling at that speed.'
Mr Newton-Kay replied: 'Yes.'
The barrister asked: 'Did you seriously think that was a safe way to travel?' to which the witness responded: 'No, but I went trail to trail. I was not on roads much.'
Mr Langdale added: 'You have taken the restrictor off of it (the bike) which stops it going above the legal speed limit for that bike. When I say legal speed limit I mean the off-road limit, to make it go faster.'
The jury heard that the 4×4 made five attempts to hit the bike and 'kept dropping back' before it came 'out of nowhere' and knocked the couple off the bike on the fifth try.
Mr Langdale said: 'A two-tonne vehicle is making contact with you going, you say, 46 miles an hour four times and not once do you come off or lose control.
'You would be off and in a hedge is what I'm suggesting to you. Your account of there being four previous rammings… is simply not right, did not happen.
'You have no real memory of how you came off the bike. You undoubtedly came into contact with the car but it was not by him ramming you deliberately.'
Mr Newton-Kay replied: 'He deliberately chased me, deliberately rammed me, and left us for dead.'
The trial continues.