Immigrant on run for three years admits road killing

Victim Olive Stephens was left dying in the road in July 2006 after she was hit by a reversing Citroen Xsara driven by Chinese immigrant Tian Bin Xue.

After knocking her down as she crossed the road in Hunslet, Leeds, he put the car into first gear and struck Mrs Stephens for a second time.

After dumping the vehicle, he went on the run for more than three years before he was tracked down by police and arrested in Blackburn, Lancashire, in January this year.

He was originally charged with manslaughter but this was later reduced to causing death by dangerous driving because the Crown could not prove that he had seen Mrs Stephens as she crossed the road, a court heard yesterday.

Xue, 37, pleaded guilty on the basis he believed he had struck the kerb and only learned the truth 30 minutes later from a takeaway owner.

Yesterday a judge at Leeds Crown Court warned him it was inevitable that he would go to jail when sentenced next month.

Mrs Stephens, who formerly ran a grocery shop in Leeds and had also worked as a home help, was described as a "free spirited and independent minded woman" by her son Richard, 69.

After the case he said: "The fact that he has been on the run for three-and-a-half years has been on our minds for all that time.

"The fact that he was apprehended by police was a relief."

Although she was 91, Mrs Stephens was "extremely fit and active" and would often walk into Leeds city centre from her sheltered accommodation in Dewsbury Road, Beeston.

Xue, who worked in restaurants and markets in Leeds, was detained after entering Britain illegally but released while the authorities decided his fate.