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A woman who stole a defenseless man’s electric vehicle, dragged him across the ground and left him to die “cruelly” in the freezing cold has been sentenced to prison.

Kimberley Ann Hawkins, 41, had previously admitted killing Neil Shadwick after she rode his scooter outside a Tesco supermarket in Gloucestershire on January 22 last year.

Mr Shadwick, aged 63, who was using his mobility scooter to get around, was left overnight in sub-zero temperatures and was found unconscious in the car park on Stratford Road in Stroud a few hours later at 6am. He later died in hospital.

Hawkins drove off on the scooter, dragging Mr Shadwick along the ground for up to a minute. He later abandoned the vehicle on Bisley Old Road in Stroud, where it was found by a member of the public at around 8am.

Gloucestershire Police described the defendants’ behaviour as “appalling” and said they knew Mr Shadwick was “extremely vulnerable”.

Hawkins, of no fixed address, had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter, aggravated vehicle theft and assault in connection with Mr Shadwick’s death.

On Thursday, she was sentenced to six years and six months in prison at Gloucester Crown Court for the three offences relating to Mr Shadwick’s death, as well as other, separate charges.

Sentencing Hawkins, Bristol District Judge Peter Blair KC described the sequence of events that led the defendant to kill Mr Shadwick as “appalling”.

Noting that a neighbour described Hawkins as a regular visitor to Mr Shadwick’s home since late 2021, the judge said: “The reality is that you took money from him or attempted to take money from him, no doubt to fund your drug addiction at the time.”

“What we saw in court was the horrific image of you and him going into a shop and then to an ATM to withdraw money and give it to you (before) it became clear that he could not withdraw any money.”

Judge Blair said the defendant then got into the driver’s seat of Mr Shadwick’s mobility scooter, which the victim leaned on for balance, before driving off. “You dragged him behind you for a considerable period of time,” the judge said, describing Hawkins as someone who “turned a blind eye” and as a result Mr Shadwick “suffered abrasions” before he broke free and Hawkins drove off.

“It was known that he was a very vulnerable man,” the judge told the defendant. “He was left there for about three hours without being able to get help in the freezing cold.”

In a statement read to the court on her behalf, Mr Shadwick’s sister described her brother as “an obviously vulnerable man” and said of his killing: “Neil was suddenly and cruelly taken from us all.”

She said she was shown video footage of the incident. “I was horrified and have had flashbacks and nightmares about it ever since,” she said. “Neil didn’t deserve to be treated like that and abandoned – no one deserves that.”

Further information on this breaking news will follow…