A daughter has paid tribute to her much-loved father killed in an accident with a taxi.

Leslie Roberts, 56, who lived in Turkey had come back to the UK last Christmas to see family and his first grandchild Jack.

But what should have been a happy holiday turned to tragedy when the retired HGV driver, who had started a new life in Bodrum with his wife Marilyn, died on December 20 after a night out drinking with friends in Bingley.

He had been walking in the pitch-black on a rural road from Long Lee towards Harden when he was struck by a Keighley taxi taking revellers home from a Christmas party.

Bradford coroner Roger Whittaker said at an inquest this week that the collision had been “a tragic accident”

Mr Roberts’ daughter Emma Richmond said waiting for the inquest had been “like a grey cloud hanging over our heads.”

She said: “It’s been ten months since the accident but we’ve been waiting for the inquest to happen and end so we can have some kind of closure to all this.

“Dad was a likeable man, who made lots of friends and was a bit of a joker. Family was his priority – he was the kind of guy you could rely on.

“Jack is very much like his granddad, he’s got his eyes. Dad was very proud of him.”

Mr Roberts’ joiner son-in-law, Luke Richmond, had made a wooden bench in his memory. The family has put it in the St Ives estate, close to Coppice Pond where Mr Roberts used to fish, and near where he died.

After Tuesday’s inquest Mr Roberts’ widow paid her own tribute to the people who were at the aftermath of the road accident – including two doctors and nurses from another taxi that stopped to help.

“I feel for all of them. The trauma must have been horrendous. It’s not just us, his family, who have been affected. It’s other people’s lives too – those who were there that night.”

A post mortem found Mr Roberts had suffered a non-survivable traumatic fracture of the cervical spine and brain injuries. His death would have been almost instantaneous, said Mr Whittaker.

Taxi driver Sajid Mahmood said in a statement read out at the inquest he had only seen Mr Roberts at the last minute.