Man charged with hit-and-run on wife

10:35am Thursday 24th July 2008

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A husband has been charged with attempting to kill his wife by running her down in a van.

Martin Hewlett, 44, is due to appear in court today accused of attempted murder.

The news came after an investigation by Sussex Police’s major crime branch which lasted almost five months.

Worthing Hospital nurse Anne Hewlett, 35, originally from Denmark, was knocked down by a stolen van earlier this year.

She was left lying in the road with critical injuries a few hundred yards from where she lived with her husband and their two teenage children in Guildford Road, Tarring, Worthing.

She had been riding one of her children’s bicycles in Canterbury Road at the time of the collision at 10.45pm on Friday, February 29.

Police arrested Martin Hewlett, 44, the next day and questioned him before releasing him on bail.

Forensic examinations were later carried out on a white Ford Transit van found abandoned a mile away from the crash scene, at Broadwater Hall, off South Farm Road.

The van, which belonged to a sandwich delivery firm, had been stolen two days before the crash.

Police returned to Canterbury Road the week after the crash to try to find and quiz motorists who were in the area when it happened.

Scenes of crime officers returned to Broadwater Hall to gather further evidence as recently as the beginning of this month.

Mrs Hewlett suffered broken legs, crush wounds and liver damage as well as injuries to her skull.

She spent several weeks in intensive care and is now understood to have returned to her home country, Denmark, with her parents and her two teenage children.

Police described Mrs Hewlett as a popular, well-known woman.

Her injuries are said to be “extremely serious and potentially life-changing”.

Martin Hewlett, a social security worker, is due to appear at Worthing Magistrates’ Court this morning.