THE dad of tragic hit-and-run victim Levi Bleasdale has been cleared of mugging a pensioner.

And today Lee Bleasdale's partner, Kirsty Ryan, told how she hoped the "worst year of their lives" was now over.

Mr Bleasdale, 23, of Athol Street North, Burnley, was found not guilty by a jury of the "vicious" robbery of 83-year-old Mary Hall after a week-long trial at Burnley Crown Court.

As he walked free of court, Miss Ryan, 22, who also has a second child, Brogan, one, with Mr Bleasdale, told of a "nightmare" 10 months.

Her ordeal began last July when her boyfriend of almost nine years was accused of robbery.

Then, on September 9, three-year-old Levi died after the hit-and-run crash and earlier this year Mr Bleasdale's dad died.

Miss Ryan had also found herself in court last December after admitting throwing a glass vase at her mother's partner who was said to have told her he had not liked Levi and did not care about her death.

Miss Ryan says she has suffered depression because of the stress she has endured since last summer and has not been able to sleep or eat and is on large doses of medication.

She said: "It would have wrecked our lives if he was convicted. He might have gone to jail and Brogan might have been five or six years old when he came out."

She told of how Mr Bleasdale was in custody when Levi died after being struck by a stolen car driven by an uninsured and unlicensed driver.

He was allowed out of custody to see his daughter in hospital to make the heart-breaking decision to allow her life-support machine to be switched off.

She added: "I said: I am not turning it off until he is here.' "At the end of the day Lee stopped me from killing myself. I wouldn't have got through it without him."

Miss Ryan is set to move into a new home and the couple hope they can settle down to a fresh start as a family with Brogan. They plan to go to college together.

Mr Bleasdale, a heroin addict, had told the court he did not carry out the robbery in an alleyway between Abingdon Road and Coronation Avenue because he was high on the drug at his home at the time.

Miss Ryan said her boyfriend was trying to kick his drug addiction and put his life of crime behind him by attending the community drugs team at Westgate in Burnley.

Mohammed Hussain, 26, of Thurston Street, Burnley, was jailed for three months in February for failing to stop and report an accident after knocking down Levi.