THE frustration of those who loved Jimmy Mulligan is very easy to understand.

Mr Mulligan, 73, died after he was hit by a defective car being driven dangerously as he waited at a bus stop in Gateshead.

The car was being driven by either Christopher Eade or Robert Webber, but only they know who it was for sure.

Mr Eade's acquittal by a jury at Leeds Crown Court yesterday was the culmination of a three-year fight by Mr Mulligan's family to get "Justice For Jimmy".

Sadly, justice can never be done because Christopher Eade and Robert Webber each insist the other was at the wheel.

Our hearts go out to Mr Mulligan's family because they have tried so hard to do what was right. But we also sympathise with the members of the jury who were faced with a decision which must have been agonisingly difficult.

The court was told that Eade had taken a cocktail of heroin, Valium and cannabis. But, in the end, it was impossible for the jury to be sure that he had been the driver, and a not guilty verdict, therefore, had to be the correct decision.

The person responsible for the death of a kindly and much-loved pensioner has got away with it - and there is nothing the law can do.

The only consolation for Jimmy Mulligan's family is that they never let him down in their determination to at least have the case tested in court.