This time he was convicted of common assault on a woman at a charity car wash who remembered him from the court case.

Diprose, 22, of Austwick Road, Lancaster, was at the charity event at Lancaster and Morecambe College when he was recognised as the man who killed four-year-old Casey O'Callaghan.

Mr Andrew Creswell, prosecuting at Preston Magistrates Court, said: "Diprose was the passenger of the car being washed. Some girls recognised him from the newspapers.

"He lost his temper and confronted one of them. He was verbally abusive, spat in her face and grabbed her head and pulled her head into a minibus."

The victim, Jaimie Anderson, said: "The girls were beginning to recognise who it was. A girl asked me what was going on so I relayed the information to her – apparently the passenger was the guy who was
driving during this accident. He got out of the car and was shouting at me to mind my own business."

Diprose, who denied the charge of common assault, said: "They were washing the car and then stopped. I wound down the window and asked what was going on.

"Jaimie Anderson came out from behind a minibus and shouted I was the one who killed that kid. She spat at me. I wanted to know why she said that. I have to see that baby in my head every day. I have to live with that on my conscience. It has nothing to do with her."

Mr John Halewood Dodd, defending, said: "He wanted to know why people make comments when they don't know the background. He said he acted in self defence."

District Judge Mr P Ward gave Diprose 100 hours of community service and ordered him to pay £200 court costs and £100 compensation for the offence which happened in May.


Is that all my son's life is worth?

Man reprimanded for breaching community order