Killer personal trainer, 26, repeatedly ran over football lover after failing to defrost her windscreen - and then dismissed him as a 'smackhead' as he lay dying under her car

By OLIVIA CHRISTIE, NEWS REPORTER Published: 20:59, 23 June 2026 | Updated: 21:00, 23 June 2026 A personal trainer repeatedly ran over a man after she failed to defrost her windscreen properly and drove the wrong way down a one-way street - before dismissing him as a 'smackhead' as he lay dying under the wheels of her car.  Megan Murphy, 26, drove over amateur footballer Darryl Tomlinson, 31, three times as he lay slumped in the road after a night out drinking with friends on January 9 last year.  Murphy, who runs a fitness coaching class near her home in Ince, near Wigan, lied to police at the scene of the crash, saying she had been reversing along the road and hurriedly attempted to defrost her windscreen. Police seized her phone and found a message from a friend saying: 'Make sure ur windows are defrosted or have some vision out of it and u won't get f***** because he was already on the floor and in the way.  'If he is a crackhead that explains that.' Murphy admitted causing death by dangerous driving at Bolton Crown Court and is due to be sentenced tomorrow.  The court heard she was notorious for driving her car the wrong way down the street where she hit Mr Tomlinson as she did not want to have to drive through a nearby housing estate.  Mr Tomlinson, who lived just 500 yards away from the scene of the crash, died at the roadside from his injuries, despite efforts to save him.  Murphy, who runs a fitness coaching class near her home in Ince, near Wigan, admitted causing death by dangerous driving at Bolton Crown Court Mr Tomlinson (pictured), who lived just 500 yards away from the scene of the crash, died at the roadside from his injuries, despite efforts to save him Murphy, who runs a fitness coaching class near her home in Ince, near Wigan, lied to police at the scene of the crash, saying she had been reversing along the road A neighbour had already called 999 one hour before the tragedy after seeing him collapsed in the street, but neither police nor the ambulance responded to the call. An investigation is currently underway into the emergency services blunder.   Rob Hall prosecuting said: 'CCTV cameras recorded vehicles driving around him at 4.30am and then reversing to avoid driving around him at 4.49am. 'A neighbour who saw Darryl Tomlinson lying in the road assessed him as incoherent and unresponsive and asked his partner to call for an ambulance, which she duly did at 5.05am. 'At 5.13am, North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) notified Greater Manchester Police but in an awful twist of fate, sadly, neither NWAS or police could find the patient and never attended the scene as a result of the initial call. 'Clearly if they had, they might have prevented the events that followed and, as a result, their non-attendance is under investigation.' The court heard as neighbours waited for the emergency services to arrive, a taxi driver blocked the entrance to the road to stop traffic entering in a bid to keep Mr Tomlinson safe. But he did not anticipate that Murphy would be driving the wrong way along the street from the opposite direction. Mr Hall added: 'At 5.44am, Megan Murphy came out to her Citroen DS3 which was parked down a rear access lane as usual. 'CCTV cameras recorded what looked like only seconds of an attempt to clear the front windscreen of ice.  'This was woefully inadequate and so, when she reversed the car out of the rear access lane, she had practically no outward visibility from the driver's seat. 'She then drove forward and stops, fully illuminating Darryl Tomlinson in her headlights immediately in front of her car. 'But as if to prove just how poor her forward visibility was, the defendant then drove over Darryl Tomlinson, with him being run over by her front offside wheel, despite a neighbour running towards her trying to warn her and the taxi driver honking his horn. 'Murphy then reversed again, running over Darryl Tomlinson and then drove forward, once again running him over and putting the car's bottom panel across his torso and restricting his ability to breathe. 'In the immediate aftermath, Megan Murphy admitted to the taxi driver: "I didn't see him" but sadly, thereafter, she decided to deliberately lie about what had happened to avoid responsibility. 'In a 999 call that followed, she was overheard saying she was planning to drive the correct way which the taxi driver was then heard to challenge, such was the local knowledge of her habit. 'Three minutes after the collision, she walked away from scene up and made a phone call in which she twice claimed, dishonestly, that she had reversed over Darryl Tomlinson and pejoratively calling him a "smackhead" whilst he lay trapped under her car. 'Whilst Darryl Tomlinson is still under her car, she obtained something from within and used it to try to remove ice from the front windscreen to create the impression that she had good forward visibility.' Emergency Services arrived at 6am and were able to pull Mr Tomlinson from underneath the vehicle, but he died 20 minutes later. In a conversation at the roadside with a police officer, Murphy falsely claimed that she had de-iced her car before setting off and had reversed out to drive the correct way up Pembroke Road.  She said as she was reversing, she felt a bump and thought that she had driven up a kerb. But police were suspicious of her account and noted her windscreen was heavily iced over, with only a small section partially cleared.  When formally quizzed she gave no comment in police interview. In a statement, Mr Tomlinson's mother Michelle said: 'He would do anything for anybody. He loved football from being able to walk. From playing it to watching it, he knew everything about the game. 'If Megan Murphy had seen him or if the ambulance had done their job properly, then Darryl would still be here. I do feel the ambulance contributed to his death, but Megan Murphy was the one who took his life. 'Since the day I lost my son, it changed all our lives. It was the worst day of my life.' The victim's father Tommy Tomlinson said: 'I have had many sleepless nights thinking about what he suffered. I wake up having these nightmares and feel like giving up on life. 'Sixteen months on, and my emotions are still the same as they were on that day. Nothing can make me understand why he wasn't safe. I hold the ambulance service accountable for not finding him - but I hold the girl accountable for taking his life. 'He was not only my son but my working colleague and friend - I think about him every single day. The day I lost Darryl was the day I lost half of me.' Murphy will be sentenced tomorrow at Bolton Crown Court. 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