A Kingston Hospital doctor will stand trial over the accident that left Surrey Comet features editor June Sampson in hospital for six months.

Miss Sampson, 81, spent months recovering at St George’s Hospital after being struck by a car outside of the hospital last November.

She was left with serious injuries including several broken bones and a bleed on the brain.

Consultant obstetrician Andrew Breeze, 39, from Leeds, denies driving his Volkswagen Passat without due care and attention.

He did not attend the hearing at Lavender Hill Magistrates’ Court today but informed magistrates of his not guilty plea by post.

It is alleged Mr Breeze, who studied medicine at Cambridge University, pulled out from Kingston Hospital’s car park in Galsworthy Road before allegedly hitting Miss Sampson who was crossing the road.

Miss Sampson, a grandmother and mother-of-two, became the first woman in Kingston in modern times to be awarded the honour of freedom of the borough in June.

She has worked for the Surrey Comet for 40 years and was given a standing ovation at the ceremony in the Guildhall, where she made one of her first public appearances since the accident.

Mr Breeze’s case will next be heard at Lavender Hill Magistrates’ Court on August 12.