Hit-and-run driver locked up for 13 years over death of baby

Independent

15 hours ago

A driver who mowed down a five-months-pregnant student and killed her baby boy has been locked up for 13 years.
Renju Joseph, 31, was struck by a car driven at high speed by Ashir Shahid, 20, as she walked on a zebra crossing in the village of Bamber Bridge, near Preston, Lancashire.
The Toyota Prius was estimated to be travelling at between 58mph and 71mph at the time, in dark, wet conditions, in a 30mph zone, Preston Crown Court heard.
Mrs Joseph was taken to hospital from the scene in Station Road in the early evening of September 29, and an emergency C-section was carried out in an attempt to save the life of her son, Olive.
She was walking slightly behind two female colleagues on the crossing at about 7.50pm as they headed to work a night shift at a local care home.
A motorist travelling in the opposite direction said the Prius driver seemed to increase speed about 15 metres away from the crossing and then swerved from the two pedestrians in front.
The pregnant woman was hit and 'thrown into the air for quite some distance' before she tumbled and rolled into his car, said the witness.
Prosecutors said the driving of Shahid before the collision also 'left a lot to be desired'.
Video clips recovered from his mobile phone and that of his front seat passenger, younger brother Sam Shahid, 17, showed them laughing and singing to music as the car is driven erratically and at speed.
Sam Shahid was also seen to put his feet and upper body out of the window while the driver removes both hands from the wheel at times and makes gun gestures.
Minutes after the collision the Toyota was abandoned in a side street and covered with a sheet by the defendants, before others moved the vehicle on to the back of flatbed truck and dumped it in Farnworth, Greater Manchester.
Ashir Shahid was arrested days later and made no comment when interviewed, but when his phone was examined it revealed that on the night of the collision he made an online search for 'charge for hit and run human'.
A video clip on his Snapchat account also showed him singing along to the Shaggy song It Wasn't Me and laughing.
Voice note recordings were also discovered of Sam Shahid rapping: 'Ran that bitch over, baby got packed. She still not woke up, she still asleep.'
Ashir Shahid, of Windsor Road, Walton le Dale, Preston, pleaded guilty in June to causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving.
On Friday, he was also banned from driving for 15 years and one month, and must pass an extended retest.
Sam Shahid, also of Windsor Road, was detained for three years after he pleaded guilty to assisting an offender.
Sentencing them, Judge Ian Unsworth KC said Ashir Shahid's acceleration in the moments before the crash was 'akin to what you may see on a Formula 1 race track'.
He said: 'Your driving was nothing less than appalling. You engaged in a prolonged and persistent course of dangerous driving.
'Your speed was significantly in excess of the speed limit and was highly inappropriate for the prevailing road conditions.
'Olive's life lasted five hours and 38 minutes. He did not live to see dawn. His mother never saw him alive.
'His life was snubbed out before it really began.'