A MAN appeared at Carlisle Crown Court today accused of causing the death of a woman whose body was found in a lane near Kirkby Stephen in February.

John Trevor Dent, 49, was charged after his partner, 49-year-old grandmother Rose-Marie Valente, was found dead at Brough on February 27.

Ms Valente, a mother-of-five from Woodside Crescent, Bingley, West Yorks, is understood to have spent the weekend with Dent, with whom she had been in a relationship for about ten years.

Dent was charged with causing her death by driving on the lane near his home in Swindale Grange, Brough, without due care and attention while he was over the legal drink-driving limit.

Prosecutor Dick Binstead told the court police found Ms Valente’s body early on the morning of February 27 after Dent reported that he had discovered her lying in the road.

He said the charge arose from Dent’s alleged driving the previous night when, it was alleged, he knocked Ms Valente down as she was walking down the narrow road near his home.

Dent was not asked to enter a plea to the charge during the brief hearing before Cumbria’s top judge, Paul Batty QC, the honorary Recorder of Carlisle.

That will happen when he next appears in court, on January 21.

In the meantime he was remanded on bail on condition that he continues to live at his address in Brough.