A pensioner has denied causing the death of a Linwood teenager by driving reversing over her as she was filling her car up with petrol. 

Alexander Wotherspoon, 83, appeared at Paisley Sheriff Court on Thursday charged over the death of Eilish Herron.

Eilish was just 17 when she was struck by Wotherspoon's Ford Focus Zetec Auto at the Asda filling station at the Phoenix Retail Park in Linwood, Renfrewshire, on September 10, 2014.

Frail Wotherspoon, who uses a zimmer frame to help him walk, appeared in the dock before Sheriff Susan Sinclair charged with breaking Section 2B of the Road Traffic Act 1988 by driving without due care and attention.

He denied starting the engine of his car and reversing while the driver's door was still open, failing to keep control of the car and, while it was reversing, causing it to hit the Renault Clio Eilish was filling up with petrol.

The charge against Wotherspoon states his actions knocked Eilish to the ground, moved her car out of the way and caused his car to reverse over her, dragging her underneath the car, "causing her to be so severely injured that she died."

Sheriff Sinclair adjourned the case for a trial to take place in August, scheduled a pre-trial hearing to take place next month and continued Wotherspoon's bail.

Speaking a year after the teen's death, her mum Shanneal, 47, said: “Eilish was a really good girl, a normal teenager who loved her life,  loved her family and loved her sport.

“The enormity of how loved she was never hit me until the funeral when so many people came to pay their respects.

“The entire community was amazing. You’re a mum at the end of the day and you’ve lost a child, it hits everyone and they can feel my pain as well.

“I can’t believe it’s a year without my wee girl. I haven’t seen her, but I talk to her all the time and she’s in the house with me.

“I kiss her photograph at night and to hear the way people talk about her is lovely.

“It’s still very surreal – I wake up thinking about her and still don’t believe it. I can’t believe how good so many people are.

“She was my best friend, we had such a good laugh. You don’t cry at what people expect you to, it can just be the silliest little things that set you off.

“I can’t put into words how much she’s missed in our family. We are all very close.”

As a keen netball player, Eilish played for Paisley Juniors and volunteered as a junior coach.

After her death Netball Scotland created the The Eilish Herron Young Coach of the Year Award, which will continue as a yearly recognition award for young coaches of the future.