A SHORT-sighted motorist who killed a teenage girl in a hit-and-run crash is today behind bars after being convicted of manslaughter.

Michael Emm, 22, was found guilty of unlawfully killing 18-year-old beauty therapy student Emma Holley by gross negligence.

After the crash, tyre fitter Emm left Miss Holley lying in the road where she was run over by another car.

He then drove his Volkswagen Golf GTi into a field, torched the car and removed the number plates.

Yesterday, Mr Justice Patrick Elias remanded Emm, of Pembroke Road, Bemerton Heath, Salisbury, in custody for a pre-sentence report.

Emm had denied manslaughter and an alternative charge of causing death by dangerous driving.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to pervert the course of justice and driving without insurance.

After deliberating six hours, the jury convicted him by a majority of ten to two.

Gordon Bebb, prosecuting, told the court Emm had only driven the car for the first time half-an-hour before the fatal crash.

He said Emm did not even see Miss Holley before he hit her as she was crossing the A338 road near her home in Downton, near Ringwood, in February.

Mr Bebb told the jury that when arrested next day, Emm insisted to police he had been wearing his glasses at the time of the crash. He told them he would be "lethal" without them as he could only see three or four feet in front of him.

He added: "Emm told officers that he would not dream of driving without glasses.

"In his own words if he did so he would be 'lethal' and he would not put himself in that danger."

But workmates at the tyre-fitters where he worked in Boscombe, Bournemouth, told the court Emm had admitted leaving his glasses at home.

Mr Bebb said Miss Holley had been hit by Emm's car as she crossed the busy road early in the evening. She died later of multiple injuries.