On Saturday, 5 June last year, the 22-year-old victim was walking home near the A31 Farnham Bypass when she was hit by a car that did not stop at the scene.
Off-duty Superintendent Adam Smith was driving home from work when he noticed the incident. He and an off-duty paramedic Jen provided life-saving medical care to the victim, using his belt as a tourniquet to prevent further blood loss. Sadly, the young woman lost her leg.
Extensive investigations were launched, and officers identified a Blue BMW that they suspected was involved in the collision overnight. This car belonged to Marsden, and officers recovered it from a Farnham address where they discovered it had a cracked front bumper and was missing a wingmirror. When questioned by police, Marsden claimed he hit an animal and blamed the foggy weather conditions.
He was arrested, and toxicology revealed that he had consumed too much alcohol to drive. Marsden had attended a ‘bottomless brunch’ event in Guildford, where he consumed approximately eleven alcoholic drinks before getting in his car and driving to more pubs in Aldershot, where he consumed an additional fifteen shots and two pints.
Phone records revealed that the day after the collision, he had looked at Surrey Police’s appeals for witnesses and messaged friends and family about it.
