A HAMPSHIRE baby sitter could face financial ruin after a van struck the nine-year-old boy she was in charge of.

An insurance giant has launched a claim against babysitter Valerie Cole, from Southampton, and the child's mother three years after the child was struck as he went out to play.

The case is the latest high-profile legal dispute to occur years after a child was knocked down in an accident.

Only last week, insurance giant London and Edinburgh backed down from suing the brother of Southampton teenager Matthew Minchin, who was seriously injured in an accident on Weston Lane in May 1997.

The company alleged that Matthew's brother Gareth had not looked after him properly at the time of the accident.

In the latest case, Darren Coombs was knocked over by the van as he left his family home in Aspe Heath, Sandown, Isle of Wight, to visit a friend who lived nearby.

Darren was in hospital for ten weeks after the accident. At one point he was given only a 25 per cent chance of survival.

He has been left partially brain damaged and has the mental age of a four or five-year-old.

Mrs Cole, 35, who lives at Canada Road, Woolston, said: "We are waiting to go to court. It has been going on for three years now. First of all they tried to blame his mother. When that didn't work they tried to put the blame on me. I feel guilty even though his parents don't blame me. It will stay with me for the rest of my life."

She said that if the case goes against her it could cost as much as £200,000.

Darren's mother Eve Coombs said: "We are totally disgusted. Our solicitors have told us we will have to go bankrupt."

A Provident Insurance spokeswoman said: "Our policy holder was involved in an accident, but liability for the accident is in dispute. And, because of this, it's going to go to trial in the next three to four months. Because of the litigation involved we cannot go into any details."