A TERRIFIED youngster died under the wheels of a bus after it was stormed by teenage bullies - leaving the driver powerless to help, a court heard yesterday.

Twelve-year-old Jamie Wells died yards from his home when he fell trying to get off the bus while it was still moving.

Yesterday, the 41-year-old driver, Deborah White, appeared before Teesside Crown Court charged with causing death by dangerous driving.

Ms White, of Hollinside Road, Billingham, pleads not guilty to causing his death in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough, exactly a year ago yesterday.

Nicholas Campbell, prosecuting, claimed the double-decker had been taken over by unruly kids who turned the bus run into a journey from hell.

The pupils, who were on their way home after finishing school, used emergency handles, set off alarms and jumped on and off the bus, even though it was still moving.

They swung from a pole in the doorway and a group of about a dozen blocked Ms White's view. All of them ignored the warning: "No standing passengers beyond this point."

Despite the chaos aboard the bus, the court was told that Ms White carried on driving until little Jamie fell under the wheels in Burlam Road.

The jury heard how the bullies had prevented Jamie from getting off at the right stop.

Adults on the Stagecoach Transit bus heard his cries of: "I want to get off."

But before they could do anything, it was too late.

Passenger Philip Eastwood said he believed that the children had taken over the bus, said Mr Campbell.

Peter McCall and his teenage son, Robert, were standing at the bus stop waiting to get on. They watched in disbelief as the double-decker rolled on past with youngsters hanging from the pole.

He claimed that Ms White, a bus driver for three years, should have stopped the bus immediately and reported the behaviour to bosses at her depot in Stockton.

When Ms White rang the depot asking them to send an ambulance, she was overheard saying: "I knew this would happen one day."

Ambulance driver Kenneth Aitchison, who had been following the No 24 bus, crawled underneath it and released the crushed youngster.

Jamie, of Dufton Avenue, Linthorpe, a pupil at Acklam Grange school, died two hours later in the operating theatre at Middlesbrough General Hospital.

Mr Campbell said Ms White had been overheard talking on a mobile phone to her boyfriend.

He told the court: "It is the Crown's case that her driving that vehicle with open doors was dangerous and it was that which caused Jamie's death.

"Had the doors been closed he could not have left the bus and met the death that he did. He left the bus while it was turning left at a road junction through the open doors."

By the time police arrived at the scene the children who had been on the bus had scattered.

The case continues.