Molly Mycroft: Face of Doncaster driver who used phone & sped through red light moments before killing woman

A beloved young woman was just six days away from her 21st birthday when she was killed by a ‘deplorable’ driver who reached speeds of 78mph and drove through a red light.

The family of Sarah Oliver described how in addition to celebrating her own landmark birthday, she had also been looking forward to marking her younger sister's 18th birthday and buying her sibling's first legal drink.

Sheffield Crown Court heard how those plans - along with her many hopes and dreams for the future - were snatched away from Sarah in an instant when she was killed by defendant, Molly Mycroft, in a horror crash, which seriously injured two others and continues to devastate the lives of everyone involved.

Minutes before Mycroft was sent to begin a lengthy prison sentence, Sarah’s mum, Ann-Marie Stone said: “We should have been planning her 21st birthday, but instead we were planning her funeral.”

She continued: “We are truly heartbroken. Kids should be burying their parents when they are old, we shouldn’t be burying a 20-year-old.” 

“We will never see her walk down the aisle, Sarah will never get to have a child or her own family,” she added.

“There are so many things she will never get to do now, and there were so many things she was looking forward to doing in her future.”

Sarah’s dad, John Oliver, said that their family’s lives have ‘never been the same’ since their ‘beautiful’ Sarah was taken away from them. 

Speaking directly to Mycroft through her statement, Sarah’s sister, Sophie, said: “Molly, not only did you take my sister, but you also took my best friend. I never even got to have my 18th with my sister.” 

During a hearing held on February 23, 2024, prosecutor, Kitty Colley, described how not only was Mycroft driving exceptionally fast at the time of the collision, but she had also been undertaking other vehicles and travelling at speeds of at least 70mph for just over a mile beforehand, as she made her way up on Wheatley Hall Road in Doncaster, which is subject to a 40mph limit. 

Mycroft had been travelling with her friend, the first complainant, in the passenger seat, after agreeing to pick her up from Doncaster railway station and take her to the Edenthorpe area of the city. 

Ms Colley said a three-second video, which was taken by the first complainant around two minutes before the fatal crash, ‘shows clearly’ that Mycroft was ‘holding her phone in full in her right hand while she was steering with her left hand’. Ms Colley said there was no evidence to prove that Mycroft still had her phone in her hand at the time of the crash, however. 

The car was seen to wobble during the brief video, as Mycroft laughed and music blared from the speakers; and Ms Colley said the first complainant reported feeling a ‘jolt’. 

The court heard how at the time of the crash at around 9.20pm on August 2, 2022, Sarah was being taken to work at Polypipe on Neale Road in the city by her colleague, Pedro Ribeiro, and the pair were a matter of seconds away from the business.

Ms Colley said Pedro, driving a BMW vehicle, had been waiting for just under a minute at a set of traffic lights, and after they turned green, he made a lawful right-turn on to Wheatley Hall Road; and without warning, the passenger-side of his vehicle was struck by Mycroft’s red Seat Ibiza car. 

The lights on Wheatley Hall Road, near to the junction of Neale Road, had been red for around six seconds when Mycroft drove through them at a speed of between 78 and 83 mph.

Ms Colley said that not only did Mycroft initially fail to brake - only managing to do so moments before impact - but there is ‘no evidence that the vehicle slowed because the speed at the point of impact was higher than it had been only 400 metres before on Wheatley Hall Road, prior to the collision’.

Sarah is believed to have been killed instantly, while Mycroft's two victims - the first complainant and Pedro - both suffered significant injuries, and continue to receive treatment for them today - over 18 months later. 

The first complainant was rushed to hospital, and was subsequently taken into intensive care, after sustaining multiple fractures to her leg and wrist, injuries to her liver and spine, the latter of which required ‘pinning’. 

Ms Colley said medics initially hoped the first complainant would make a full recovery, but she was subsequently forced to spend 100 days in hospital, during which she contracted Covid-19 and underwent five operations. 

The first complainant also suffered nerve damage to her foot, which means she has to use an orthopaedic shoe; and she now needs to use a wheelchair. 

In her devastating statement to the court, the first complainant said that following her extensive stay at Northern General Hospital, she has been readmitted to hospital five times, and cannot rule out having her leg amputated. 

She described how, prior to the crash, she had been an ‘ambitious, courageous and adventurous young woman’ who planned to go to university; but her ‘dream of studying,’ along with her ‘lifestyle and individuality’ have been ‘stolen’ from her and she is now fearful of leaving her house. 

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Pedro required a hospital stay of around 17 days, after suffering numerous significant injuries including a bleed on the brain, a punctured lung, broken ribs, a ‘crash injury’ to his pancreas. 

In his statement to the court, Pedro said he cannot remember the crash or the 10 days following it, which he said he has found ‘really frustrating’ because he does not know if he ‘could have done something’ which would have prevented the crash and saved Sarah.

“Everyone tells me it wasn’t my fault, but when I accepted to give Sarah a lift, I promised to take her to work and home safely,” Pedro said. 

Pedro also told the court that his memory loss means he has spent months in fear of being taken away from his family, after worrying police could find him to be responsible for the crash. He said the injuries he sustained in the crash, has put his family at a financial disadvantage because he can no longer do manual work and has been forced to do a lower paid, office-based job; and his wife has also left her job at the weekends because she is concerned Pedro may have a seizure while looking after their children.

Mycroft, now aged 21, of Ivanhoe Road in Edenthorpe, Doncaster, remained in hospital until October 2022 receiving treatment for an injury to her abdomen, fractured ribs, a fractured clavicle, a lung collapse and injuries to her hands and knees. 

She was subsequently charged with, and pleaded guilty to, one count of causing death by dangerous driving, and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. 

Standing in the dock, Mycroft tearfully read out a letter of apology, and said she wished she had been the one to lose her life in the crash. 

In mitigation, Gordon Stables said that prior to the crash, Mycroft had a good driving record, and while she had failed to see the red lights in the seconds before the crash, she had stopped at red lights earlier in her journey. 

Both Mycroft and Mr Stables said they could not explain why she had failed to see the red lights. 

“The speed, of course, exacerbates the situation greatly because had she not seen the red lights at 40mph there would have been a greater chance of survivability and a greater chance of the injuries being reduced.” 

He told the court that Mycroft was due to undergo a serious operation - which was likely to take around eight hours - at Northern General Hospital in Sheffield at some point over the next month, but arrangements would be made for her to be transported from prison. 

Jailing Mycroft for nine years, The Recorder of Sheffield, Judge Jeremy Richardson KC, told her: “Your driving was comprehensively deplorable…in consequence of that deplorable driving you killed a young woman, and seriously injured two others, both of whom has suffered, and continue to suffer long-term consequences.”

“You were paying little attention to the road for a mile, possibly longer, and it’s right to observe that some while before this, you were using - while driving - your mobile telephone.”

“Good people - on occasion - do very bad things…this is a disaster and in every possible direction and dimension, you are the cause of that disaster.”

Judge Richardson also made Mycroft the subject of a 16-year driving ban, after which time she will be required to take an extended test.

He said he had made a very 'modest' reduction in her sentence, from 10 years to nine years, after taking a number of factors - including her age and how difficult recuperating in prison is likely to be - into consideration.