An e-Bike rider fled the scene after fatally crashing into a woman because he ‘just wanted his mum’, a court has heard.

Thomas Hanlon, 32, is accused of hitting Sakine Cihan, 56, at 30 mph in a 20 mph zone on his electric bike which had been souped up so much that it legally classified as a motorbike. Sakine died the day after the collision, the Old Bailey was told yesterday, after suffering a catastrophic head injury last August.

Hanlon told police he knew he had hit her on the bike he bought for £850 on Gumtree, but fled without checking on his victim. He said: ‘I just wanted to go home, I was confused…I just wanted to sleep, I just wanted my mum, I just wanted to go home.’

The interviewing police officer asked: ‘How [do] the brakes work?’ Hanlon replied: ‘Good as gold. I changed the front brakes to a hydraulic brake which is in now.’ The officer said: ‘The lights were green so you carried on. Did you try and apply the brakes at all?’

Hanlon replied: ‘I did but it was just way too late. She just went out into the road. I tried to pull both brakes, no time to swerve or nothing she didn’t even look at me.’

He told police a witness had asked him to stay at the scene but he was ‘in no fit state’ to check on the wellbeing of Mrs Cihan.

He said: ‘[The witness said] there’s a cut above your head, you should stay, you should get checked out, that’s pretty much all [he said].’

‘Had you checked on the woman?’ the officer asked.

‘No I was in no fit state,’ replied Hanlon. ‘There were loads of people there.’

Hanlon said when he got home he told his mother he had fallen off his bike but ‘was getting sick and just went to bed’ and mentioned nothing about the victim.

He was urged to contact police after his mother learnt about the crash on the news, the court heard.

Hanlon told officers: ‘I was just getting sick, I just went into bed. That’s when she saw the news and she asked what was going on.’

Hanlon, from Hackney, denies one count of causing death by careless driving, one of causing death while uninsured and one of causing death while unlicensed.

The trial continues.

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