Cambridge cyclist death: Stewart Milne going home to 'wrap presents'

Stewart Milne and Carrie-Anne Hardingham were due to get married in 2020

The partner of a man killed by a speeding driver said her "soulmate" had been on his way home to wrap Christmas and birthday presents when he died.

School caretaker Stewart Milne, 44, died after being hit while on a bicycle by the car driven by Miles Polite, in Cambridge in December 2017.

Mr Milne's partner of 14 years, Carrie-Anne Hardingham, said the pair had been Christmas shopping that day.

After Polite was jailed on Monday, she said: "I used to live, now I exist."

Polite, of Cornfields, Burwell, was jailed for three years after admitting causing death by dangerous driving.

Mr Milne had been crossing Trumpington High Street at the time and a court heard if Polite was driving "at an appropriate speed he would have seen Mr Milne".

A judge said it was "clear" from what Polite said after the crash he had been "racing ahead of another car that had annoyed [him]".

Mr Milne was on his way home from work as a school caretaker

Speaking after the hearing, Ms Hardingham said that as well as Christmas shopping, they were also buying presents for two of her children's birthdays.

That evening she said her partner told her "he was going off to work as it was a late lock up, it usually was on a Tuesday night".

"He said 'have a cup of tea ready, get the wrapping paper down, get the presents down, we're going to start wrapping'."

After initially believing his delay in coming home was because of problems with the school alarm system, eventually police came and told her Mr Milne had been in a "serious collision".

Mr Milne was hit while crossing Trumpington High Street

She then went to hospital but was unable to see him until the morning when "he was all machines, bruised, not Stewart".

"He was there for two days and after two days they couldn't do no more for him so had to make the decision to turn the machine off, and that was the end of the world.

"He was a good, kind, caring man and it's not just one life that went that night, it's all of us, because my children still don't accept it."