A LORRY driver will appear at Maidstone Crown Court on November 27 to enter a plea to a charge of causing the death of a Kent University lecturer by dangerous driving.

Yvan Vandermeulen was not present at the court on Monday when a judge set the date for the next hearing.

The 54-year-old Belgian’s Scania truck was in collision with a Nissan Micra car driving by Dr Sasha Roberts, 40, on the M2 between Sittingbourne and Faversham on September 7.

Dr Roberts, whose married name was Spinnelli, died from her injuries. Her critically injured four-year-old son was airlifted to the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford and then transferred to London’s King’s College Hospital.

The senior lecturer in English and American Literature, who lived in Lewes, East Sussex, had worked at the Canterbury university for nine years.

Vandermeulen, who will have a Flemish interpreter, has been remanded in custody.