Driver ‘did not know' he fatally struck young mother off bike, murder trial told

North Wales Chronicle

17-06-2025

Keaton Muldoon, 23, told jurors at Derby Crown Court that he would have stopped if he knew 25-year-old Alana Armstrong, who had a young son, had been knocked off the Sur-Ron off-road bike and denied that he saw her go 'over' his Land Rover Discovery.
The defendant, who the court heard was a drug dealer and had a newborn baby at the time of the collision, said he feared he was being robbed but did not chase the bikes before Ms Armstrong died at the scene in Batley Lane, near Pleasley, Derbyshire, on the evening of November 26 last year.
Muldoon denies Ms Armstrong's murder and causing grievous bodily harm with intent to her boyfriend Jordan Newton-Kay, who had his right leg amputated 15cm above the knee.
He admitted causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving before his trial began.
Prosecution KC Sally Howes cross-examined Muldoon on Tuesday and suggested that he was made a 'fool of' in the lay-by of a country lane near Pleasley after he picked up a woman who wanted to buy £30 of cocaine from him.
Ms Howes said: 'You were either embarrassed or annoyed by the fact that these bikes had lit up your car. There was some sniggering outside about shagging going on, and that made you cross, didn't it?
'Something happened in that lay-by that made you lose your rag and drive in that intimidating way, didn't it?'
Muldoon said: 'No. There was no reason to be embarrassed or annoyed.'
The prosecutor continued: 'We know that the vehicle ran over Jordan Newton-Kay's leg – you would know, because he was run over by you as the driver. You say you were unaware of it.'
Muldoon told the jury: 'If I saw people fall, I would stop. I would not just leave people to suffer. I did not know I had hit anyone.'
He told the court he thought he had successfully overtaken the bike at a passing point in the country lane, and that the bike was still behind him.
Ms Howes asked: 'These are people you feared were robbing you. If you think you are being robbed, why are you pursuing them?'
Muldoon told the court: 'I was not pursuing them. Just because I'm behind them doesn't mean I'm chasing them. I was behind them doing 30 miles an hour, about a car distance.'
Ms Howes said to the defendant: 'She (Ms Armstrong) was scooped into the bonnet, wasn't she? That explains how her body travelled in the region of 20 metres from where we know she would have disengaged from the bike.
'She was not dragged – there are no injuries consistent with dragging, but there are injuries consistent with an impact onto her, or her onto a hard, unyielding surface.
'That would have only been for a split second, but you could not fail to notice that a) you have run a body over and b) there was one in front of you on the bonnet.'
Muldoon responded: 'I would have seen if someone went over me.'
The defendant denied that he said to his passenger: 'I was only meant to knock them off the bike,' after the crash.
Ms Howes said: 'Knocking someone off a lightweight electric motorcycle with a vehicle like a Discovery is only going to have one result – really serious harm to the riders.
'You were driving in such a way as to intimidate Jordan Newton-Kay as he went up that hill slowly because of the incline and the weight on board.'
The court heard that Muldoon followed Ms Armstrong and Mr Newton-Kay on one bike, and a rider on another bike, for two minutes and 20 seconds before the fatal crash.
Muldoon told the jury: 'There was no intention to intimidate him. I had no intention to do anything. If my intention was to leave that lay-by and go after them and hit them, why would I leave that amount of time to hit them?'
Ms Howes said Muldoon told a 'carefully constructed lie' when he told detectives he had not driven the vehicle for days before the collision and said he hoped his uncle 'hands himself in'.
When asked why he lied to police, Muldoon said: 'Because I was scared, everything what everyone was saying. It was a murder investigation, obviously I was going to be scared.
'My head was all over, I didn't know what to think.'
Muldoon, of Tuckers Lane in Mansfield, Nottinghamshire, told the court, before becoming tearful: 'I knew I wasn't going to see my children for a bit. I just had a newborn baby. I promised I would always be there.'
The trial continues.