Josh Ashworth, 22, died after being struck by a car driven by disqualified driver Cole Tresidder (Picture: Facebook)

A mum searching for her missing son found him lying dead in a ditch after using an iPhone tracking app to locate him.

Josh Ashworth, 22, was hit by a BMW driven by disqualified driver Cole Tresidder as he was walking home from a night out along a country road near Grantham, Lincolnshire.

Tresidder, also 22, fled the scene after the crash, which happened at 9.30pm on April 22 last year, abandoned his damaged car nearby and failed to alert the police, Lincoln Crown Court heard.

Josh had been on a night out and was in touch with his family earlier that evening using his iPhone, prosecutor Steven Gosnell told the court.

When he hadn’t returned home by the next morning, his family and friends began searching for him.

An iPhone tracking app showed his phone was stationary at a spot near Somerby Hill along the A52.

It was his mum, Rachel Ashworth, who discovered him lying face down in a ditch.

Witnesses in another car said they’d seen Tresidder not long before the collision and believed he was driving over the speed limit.

Josh with his mum Rachael (Picture: Facebook)

PC Godfrey Barlow, a collision investigator with Lincolnshire Police concluded Tresidder was driving towards Grantham in excess of the 60mph speed limit when he struck Josh, who was walking in the same direction.

Tresidder was under a driving ban at the time, as he had been convicted of driving without due care and attention after crashing into parked cars in Grantham on December 8, 2021.

On that occasion, police also discovered 39 wraps of cocaine on him worth up to £1,560 and more than £1,000 in cash.

The day after the crash that killed Josh, Tresidder read reports of a road fatality on social media and handed himself in to police around midday. He failed to provide a specimen.

He said he did not report the accident earlier because he was a banned driver and didn’t have insurance. He also said he hadn’t realised he’d hit a pedestrian and assumed it was something like a deer.

Tresidder phoned a vehicle recovery company at 9.37pm on the night of the crash and asked them to pick up the BMW, the court heard.

Speaking in court, Josh’s mum Mrs Ashworth, described the horror of finding her son dead.

She also turned to Tresidder and said: ‘Why would anyone leave a beautiful human being on the side of the road?

‘I could have been spared finding my son with those horrific injuries.’

Josh died instantly after suffering a fractured skull, the court heard, but it took a while before the family learnt this.

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Mrs Ashworth said it haunted her for days not knowing whether he died on impact or not.

She described her son as ‘beautiful, complex and loving’ and said life as she knew it died the day she found him.

Josh’s dad Simon Ashworth also spoke warmly of his child and said an immeasurable hole had been left by his death.

Tresidder, of Springfield Road, Leicester, had admitted a charge of causing death by careless driving and failing to provide a specimen.

He also pleaded guilty to driving a vehicle while disqualified and having no insurance when the tragedy happened.

He also admitted possessing cocaine and with intent to supply the Class A drug on December 8, 2021.

Judge Catarina Sjolin Knight said it had been reasonable not to expect a pedestrian on that stretch of road.

But she added Tresidder should have reported the collision and not left it for his family and friends make the devastating discovery.

Tresidder was jailed for just over seven years (86 months) and banned from driving for almost six and a half years (77 months). He must also take an extended retest.

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Josh Ashworth had been struck and killed by a banned driver as he walked home.