A MAN working for a council contractor has admitted four offences following an accident which left a teenager with a fractured skull.

Geoffrey Lee, 28, appeared at Basildon Crown Court in connection with the accident near Tesco Extra, in Pitsea, where a girl was hit by an open back door of a van as it drove past.

Siam McEwan, 17, who had been walking along Hazelmere with her boyfriend when she was hit, suffered head injuries and a fractured shoulder blade. She was left deaf in one ear.

Lee, of Stanfield Road, Southend, had been driving a van leased by grass cutting company English Landscapes from Basildon Council at the time of the crash.

He has now pleaded guilty to four charges in connection with the accident which happened in June last year.

Lee admitted aggravated vehicle taking, driving without due care and attention, with no licence, and no insurance. He will be sentenced at the end of March.

In the meantime Siam is struggling to come to terms with her injuries.

Her stepdad James Alan, 35, of Ryedene, Vange, said: “It’s going to take a long time to rebuild and become half the person she was before.

“It’s like going all the way back to a newborn baby where you have to build your confidence again. It’s harder at her age – now she’s 17, she’s supposed to be coming into being a young woman, and she’s got absolutely no confidence.”

Siam, who has moved to Hampden Road, Grays, since the crash, had to quit her college course at Seevic, in Thundersley.

She has now enrolled on a secretarial course at Thurrock College but finds she is hampered because she is unable to use headphones due to her hearing problems.

A neurological and psychological examination will be carried out in the next couple of weeks to assess the extent of the damage.

Mr Alan added: “She’s lost her balance for life through the knock on her ear. She’s been told she’s going to be in pain with her shoulder injury and skull fracture even if the bones heal, and being told that at such a young age is such an awful lot to take on board.”