Driver 'denied intending to kill'

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A woman accused of a hit-and-run murder in Renfrewshire told a friend that she "did not mean to kill" a 39-year-old mother-of-three, a court has heard.

Paul McMenemie, 32, said Rona MacKenzie made the comments during a car journey.

Ms MacKenzie, 45, denies deliberately driving over Margaret Borris in King Street, Paisley, on 7 July.

Ms Borris's former partner, James Wandrum, 52, also denies attacking her. The trial, before Lady Dorrian at the High Court in Glasgow, continues.

The court heard that Ms MacKenzie told Mr McMenemie: "I don't know what happened. I didn't mean to kill that lassie.

"She kept hitting my motor and laughing. I kept revving the motor to get her to move. She wouldn't move. She just kept laughing at me and hitting my motor."

Mr McMenemie told the court that MacKenzie made the comments to him as he drove her to meet her lawyer in July.

He added: "Rona's reaction was it was a blank. She didn't realise what she had done till it was done.

'Mind blank'

"Her mind went blank and the next thing she knew she was driving. She said: 'I'm sorry it happened. There's nothing I can do about it now'."

Ms MacKenzie, of Foxbar, Paisley, denies murdering Ms Borris, from Irvine, by repeatedly driving and reversing over her while she was lying on the ground.

She also pleads not guilty to assaulting Ms Borris's son, Paul Wandrum, 20, by striking him on the body with her car.

Ms MacKenzie also denies attempting to defeat the ends of justice by trying to dispose of the car by submerging it in water at Threepwood Road, Beith.

She and co-accused James Wandrum, 52, of Paisley, also deny assaulting Ms Borris on 14 June by striking her on the head with an unknown object, knocking her to the ground and repeatedly punching her on the head and body.

Mr Wandrum also denies assaulting Ms Borris by punching her on the face, cutting the straps from her handbag and robbing her of cash.