However Barnes said: “The defendant got back in and drove on, absolutely certain – having now seen with his own eyes what he had already known from the moment he left the scene of the collision – that Michael Mullins was still stuck there, still alive, being ground away into the surface of the road.”
Further CCTV footage showed the Volvo appearing to veer from side-to-side in what the prosecution suggested was a further attempt to dislodge Mullins.
This time, he came free and was left on a grass verge near Wet Gate Farm in Lymm.
Barnes said a motorcyclist who had witnessed the collision had followed the trail of blood to where Mullins was lying.
He said the victim was “barely alive”, but as the witness called 999 Mullins appeared to take his final breaths.
Paramedics found he had died at the roadside when they arrived.
Mullins had sustained multiple internal injuries, but Barnes said the prosecution would argue he died not from the impact of the collision but from being dragged and then crushed by the wheels.
After the collision Richardson was recorded stopping at a petrol station in Lymm where he filled up his car and where Debotte was seen sitting inside with her head in her hands.
They then picked up some medication from a clinic before Debotte was dropped off at her home in Altrincham.
Later that evening Richardson swapped his Volvo for a Ford Transit Van owned by a friend, named as Daniel Richards, before spending the rest of the night “coming and going” from Debotte’s home.
Barnes said by around lunch time the following day, having been up all night, nursery worker Debotte “broke down” in front of her colleagues and decided to go to the police.
The jury heard that the van being driven by Richardson was spotted in Failsworth, heading towards Oldham, and pursued by Greater Manchester Police.
Barnes said he was arrested and interviewed but did not answer questions.
The trial continues.