“Hit and run” cyclist leaves six-year-old Wirral girl with broken leg

Jun 4 2009 by Lorna Hughes, Liverpool Echo

“Hit and run” cyclist leaves six-year-old girl with broken leg

A “HIT-and-run” cyclist left a six-year-old girl in a wheelchair and facing major surgery to repair her shattered leg.

The bicycle ploughed into Liberty Dempsey on New Brighton promenade while she and sister Honor, seven, waited for dad Jamie to fetch a drink from their car.

The family were planning an evening stroll along the beach while mum Verity, who is expecting her third child later this month, waited at their Wallasey home. Mr Dempsey, 33, heard a scream and turned around to find Liberty lying on the ground in agony with her leg broken in two places.

He said the male cyclist stopped briefly after the collision to replace his headphones and sunglasses before riding away.

Surgeons at Arrowe Park hospital spent three hours pinning Liberty’s tibular and fibular bones back together and say she will be in a wheelchair for eight weeks, followed by months of gruelling physiotherapy to get her back on her feet.

Mr Dempsey, a hospital technician on the bedside television system at Arrowe Park hospital, said: “We went out for tea in New Brighton and I drove further up the promenade, towards the Derby Pool, so we could go for a walk on the beach.

“Liberty said to me ‘don’t forget the drink, Daddy’ because it was so warm. I turned back to the car to get it and then I heard a clatter and a scream.