A seaside entertainer has told a jury he did not see a pedestrian whom he hit as he drove home from a performance in the early hours of the morning.

Stephen Hickinbottom denied driving carelessly in the moments before his Chrysler car hit chip shop owner Gareth Toms near the Penn Inn roundabout in Newton Abbot.

He said he was not on the phone at the time and the last call he had made on the voice-activated, hands-free phone in his car was when he had been stationary at the previous set of traffic lights.

Hickinbottom, aged 53, who performs as a comic and singer all over the south west, is on trial at Exeter Crown Court accused of causing the death of Mr Toms by careless driving.

The prosecution say he hit Mr Toms and then drove back to his home in Torquay with a broken windscreen.

Mr Toms was then hit for a second time as he lay in the road by another car driven by 59-year-old Anthony Keene, who is alleged to have lied to a mechanic about the cause of damage to the front tray of his car the next day.

Expert evidence has shown that the layout of the road, which was narrowed because of roadworks, and poor lighting, meant that neither driver would have had a chance of avoiding Mr Toms.

The jury have been told 30-year-old Mr Toms had been drinking before walking home in the road. There is no suggestion either driver was affected by alcohol or drugs

Hickinbottom, aged 53, of Danvers Road, Torquay, denied causing death by careless driving and dangerous driving. Keene, aged 59, of Haytor Drive, Newton Abbot, denies perverting the course of justice.

Grandfather Mr Hickinbottom told the jury he had been a draftsman and milkman before he moved to Devon and got into show business by taking a job as the entertainment manager of the Torbay Hotel.

He started a career as a comedy singer five years ago and now performs at hotels and holiday camps all over Devon and the wider West Country.

On the night of the accident in July 2015 he was returning from a gig at a hotel in Weymouth and reached the Penn Inn roundabout in the early hours. He was planning to pick up his wife from a party in Paignton on his way home.

He said he called his wife from the other side of Penn Inn using the bluetooth, hands-free device which is activated from the steering wheel and is controlled by voice commands, meaning he was not distracted by it.

He told the court he ended the call before entering the roundabout and was driving normally when the accident happened in a section of roadworks on the Torbay side.

He said: ’It was pitch dark. I heard a loud bang. It was quite loud and shocked me, it really did. It did not affect the movement of the car. it was just a bang onto the windscreen.

’It was something out of the blue. It scared me, as it would anyone. I remember slowing down and looking in my mirrors. I thought: "What on earth was that?"

’My first thought was that someone had thrown something at the car. It seemed to come from the air and the windscreen went bang. I had never experienced anything like it before.

’It did not cross my mind I had struck a pedestrian.’

Hickinbottom said he realised he could not get to Paignton and so went straight home, driving carefully but with adequate visibility through the driver’s side of the windscreen, which had not been shattered by the impact.

Keene told police in a series of interviews he never had a clue he had hit a person in the road. He thought he had hit a stray traffic cone from the roadworks.

He went on the drive through a flood later that night and so there was nothing visible to suggest he had hit a person or animal.

He denied telling a mechanic at Kwikfit in Newton Abbot that his wife had run over a badger the night before.