A young mother has admitted assaulting a woman who was injured after being hit by a car outside a fast food restaurant.
Megan Hill, aged 21, pleaded guilty to injuring Ashleigh Smallridge and assaulting another woman after charges of dangerous driving were dropped at Exeter Crown Court.
Hill changed her pleas after Judge Francis Gilbert, QC, indicated he would suspend any jail sentence if the case were settled.
The judge said his view of the case was that Hill panicked during the confrontation in the car park of a McDonald's in Exeter and caused the injuries recklessly.
Hill, of Moor View, Chudleigh, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm to Ashleigh Smallridge and assault by battery of Charlotte Collard. Both offences took place almost 23 months ago on January 17 last year.
She has previously pleaded not guilty to dangerous driving and the prosecution agreed the case should lie on file.
The judge ordered a pre sentence report and said:"This was a young woman in a car who may or may not have panicked. She has now had the courage to admit her wrong doing even if it on the basis of recklessness.
"It seems to me what happened was probably a reckless reaction to panic. At least it was reckless so far as the question of injury was concerned, even if the driving may have been deliberate.
"The fact she has finally owned up allows me to exercise some mercy, bearing in mind she has no previous convictions.
"At the relevant time she had one young child and she now has two small children who she is looking after and in those circumstances no judge wants to send her to prison."
Mr David Evans, defending, said she pleaded guilty on the basis she was aware injury could occur and it was unreasonable for her to have taken that risk.
Miss Bathsheba Cassel, prosecuting, said any differences between the two sides were unlikely to affect the eventual sentence, given the Judge's indication of what he had in mind.
No further details of the original incident were given in court but will be outlined when Hill returns for sentence later this month.
