Tragic life of fatal hit-and-run victim Catriona Johnston included drugs, violence and stints in jail

Catriona Josephine Johnston, 35, was struck by an unknown vehicle on Tuesday night.

Police are now hunting the driver of that vehicle.

She was buried yesterday.

The fatal collision occurred while Ms Johnston was a pedestrian on the Dunhill Road, a long road running from western Coleraine halfway to Limavady.

The PSNI said that, at about 7pm on Tuesday, "police received a report from a passing motorist concerned for the safety of a female pedestrian walking on the Dunhill Road".

They added: "Officers attended and sadly located the body of a woman who, it is believed, was struck by a vehicle which has failed to remain at the scene."

WHO WAS HIT-AND-RUN VICTIM?

Just last week, on December 2, a 42-year-old man called Raymond George Neal had been jailed for ABH against Ms Johnston.

Belfast Magistrates' Court was told that Ms Johnston was Neal's former girlfriend, and that he attacked her after she went to his home in Antrim to collect her belongings.

He chased her, threatened to murder her, damaged her phone, and when police arrived was beating her as she lay curled up on the ground, bleeding from the mouth.

Neal was jailed for seven months.

Ms Johnston, who had connections to Londonderry, had been imprisoned in the past herself.

In 2016, aged 29, she was jailed for stabbing her then-boyfriend in the chest, causing a wound just over an inch deep, after a drunken argument.

She had been charged with attempted murder, but this was reduced to GBH.

The court was told she started abusing alcohol and drugs aged 15.

Judge Gemma Loughran was quoted as saying: "There is no reason to distinguish between violence of a woman towards her male partner, and the violence of a male against his female partner". She got six months in jail.

Ms Johnston then went on to be jailed for two-and-a-half years for burgling a wheelchair-bound man's flat the next year.

One of Ms Johnston's Facebook friends was Margaret Henderson (formerly known as Henderson-McCarroll), whom she would have encountered in Hydebank women's jail.

Henderson already had a long prior history of violence before she suffocated and stabbed a 67-year-old partially-blind stroke victim in his home in Greenisland near Carrickfergus in 2016, killing him.

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‘SOMEONE WHO REJOICED IN LIFE’:

Ms Johnston’s funeral was on Sunday at 9.45am in St Joseph’s Church, Galliagh, Londonderry.

Ms Johnston is described in a funeral notice as "beloved daughter of Pauline and Gregory, loving sister of Pauline, Jennifer, Claire and Dylan and much loved auntie of Eimear, Conor, Jamie, Oisin, Ella and Eabha".

The priest at the funeral said “she loved cooking, being out, and enjoyed that sense of hospitality – of cooking and entertaining others”.

She was also keen on “artwork”, “photography”, was “greatly loved and respected”, and “rejoiced in life”.

He added: “This morning we trust she's at peace.”

Anyone with information in regards to the collision that killed Ms Johnston, or who may have dashcam footage from around the time of the collision, which was last Tuesday around 7pm, is asked to contact police on 101 quoting reference number 1653 06/12/22.

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