A DRIVER who caused the death of a motorcyclist and his pillion passenger is facing a possible retrial after the jury failed to reach verdicts.

Gary Lillism, of Hopton Drive, Kidderminster, admits two counts of causing death by careless driving but denies two counts of causing death by dangerous driving.

The 62-year-old was turning right into Otherton Lane from the A44 at Cotheridge near Worcester when he crashed into a motorcycle, killing Dean Turvey and his partner Emma Aldridge.

However, the jury failed to reach unanimous or majority verdicts after a four day trial at Worcester Crown Court and judge Jim Tindal said he had no choice but to discharge the hung jury.

The Crown Prosecution Service now has seven days to decide whether to pursue a retrial or proceed to sentence on the careless driving counts Lillis of has already admitted.

Judge Tindal made the decision after asking the jury if they had reached a verdict on which at least 10 of them were agreed and the foreman answered "no".

"In those circumstances I'm going to discharge you as a jury. That is effectively the end of this trial," said judge Tindal.

He said "there may be a retrial" after the deadlocked jury struggled to decide whether the defendant's driving was dangerous or merely careless.

Although no verdicts had been reached in the dangerous driving counts, the judge ordered a pre-sentence report to be prepared and said that this would "enable us to make progress".

During the trial the court heard that the retired teacher Gary Lillis of Hopton Drive, Kidderminster, caused the crash as he turned across oncoming traffic at around 1.40pm on October 15, 2017.

Lillis would have had between seven and eight seconds from the junction to see a vehicle coming in the opposite direction.

“I have been involved in a very serious accident with fatalities unfortunately. I have been in quite a lot of shock since,” he told the jury when examined by his barrister, Harry Bowyer.

He said the first he knew of the motorcycle was when his wife shouted ‘oh Gary!” He told the jury ‘it was my fault’ and that the motorcycle had right of way. Lillis also said of the police interview, “I was devastated. I was in tears.”

Michael Hall, prosecuting, asked him how many times he had looked before turning. Lillis said it must have been at least twice.

Mr Hall said: “Your evidence is you looked twice and on both occasions you missed the big dark bike everyone else saw?”

Lillis said he did not know why he had not seen it.

Mr Hall told the defendant: “No one saw you indicate Mr Lillis. Is that because you only realised the turning was yours at the last minute?”

Lillis said he had "no idea". He was also asked if he had relied on his peripheral vision to see the motorcycle "everyone else saw".

“I don’t know,” said Lillis.

Lillis had a full clean driving licence at the time of the crash, previously telling the jury he had been a music teacher around schools in the Dudley area.

The family of the victims who have been present throughout the trial declined to comment after the hearing.

Lillis also decline to comment when he spoke to the Worcester News reporter outside the court.