A taxi driver who hit a pedestrian at 110 km/h, causing her severe life-changing injuries, was handed a three-year driving ban and a one-year jail sentence suspended for four years.

The pedestrian, Moira Cauchi, a 50-year-old bank manager, was crossing Gżira seafront on a zebra crossing when she was hit by a Peugeot car on the evening of September 16, 2016.

The car was driven at high speed by Renald Aquilina, then 20 years old.

She was flung into the air and over the centre strip and landed on the other side of the road. 

She was unable to testify in court and her husband instead described how her life had changed.  She suffered short-term memory loss and was undergoing speech therapy.

She could no longer write and was re-learning how to eat and go to the toilet on her own. She had been unable to resume her job as a bank manager. The bank had cooperated by giving her a lower position.

Magistrate Yana Micallef Stafrace found Aquilina guilty of causing grievous injuries through dangerous and reckless driving in a built-up area. She observed that owing to his speed, the driver could not see the pedestrian "in plain sight".

The court also heard that an arrangement was reached between the victim's family and the motorist's insurance.

Aquilina was also ordered to pay a €1,683 fine and placed under a three-year treatment order for drug addiction.