Overview
- Jurors at Liverpool Crown Court found Bates guilty after concluding he deliberately drove his Ford Fiesta into O'Donovan outside a Woolton home following a late-night altercation.
- Ring doorbell footage showed the men trading punches on the driveway before they were separated, providing key context for the events leading up to the collision.
- Bates phoned 999 minutes later and admitted he had run someone over, a recording the court heard alongside eyewitness accounts from family members.
- Relatives had tried to prevent Bates from driving, with a sister transporting him away, but he returned within minutes and struck O'Donovan as he sat on a garden wall.
- O'Donovan, 47, suffered cardiac arrests and died in hospital at 4:32 a.m., and the judge said a life sentence is mandatory with the minimum term to be set at sentencing.