Tommy Hunter: 'My partner's lonely roadside death haunts me'

BBC News

10-03-2025

The partner of a man who died after being hit by a car has said she will forever be haunted knowing he was left to die alone without dignity by the roadside. Tommy Hunter's body was found in a hedge next to Burton Road, Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, in December 2023, by his friends after he did not return home from a night out in the town.On Monday, Brandon Beesla appeared at Leicester Magistrates Court and admitted driving a vehicle, a Pontiac Firebird, which was in a condition likely to cause danger of injury on Burton Road on 10 December - the night Mr Hunter, 27, went missing.Beesla, 28, was fined £2,000 and banned from driving for 12 months.
After the hearing, Mr Hunter's partner Chloe Mefford told the BBC: "No punishment will ever bring Tommy back but justice hasn't been done."Earlier, prosecutor Sabrina Sahota had told the court Beesla, 28, called a friend "in a distressed state" in the early hours of 10 December and said he had hit something in the road.Ms Sahota said Beesla was "in a panic" and asked the friend "What if I have hit something, someone, or an animal?" The court heard the friend drove to Burton Road to meet Beesla and search the area with torches before leaving.Ms Sahota said Beesla followed his friend home in the Firebird which had a damaged headlight and shattered windscreen.The friend later called the police, Ms Sahota said, and Beesla handed himself in.
During the hearing, Ms Mefford, 26, from Swadlincote, Derbyshire, said her partner had been cruelly taken away from her and their young son Harrison that night.In a victim personal statement she read to the court, she said: "Tommy was hit by a car and left at the scene to die alone without any help and without any dignity."If Brandon had done the right thing maybe things could have been different."Tommy was simply walking home from a night out, a route that he had walked regularly as he used to live in Woodville."The court heard Mr Hunter's friends and family began looking for him and his body was found by the road on 11 December.Ms Mefford added: "The fact that he lay there alone undiscovered for 29 hours is something that will haunt me forever."Since that night, my life has been shattered in ways I can barely put into words."Our home, once filled with love and laughter now feels unbearably empty."
Rebecca Barrowcliffe, defending, said Beesla, who has two previous convictions for driving with excess alcohol, was living with the burden of what happened."The remorse and regret of what happened will likely never leave him," she said."Nothing he could ever say or do will ease the suffering of Mr Hunter's family."The police report is clear. Mr Beesla is not culpable for the death of Mr Hunter."Beesla, of Hillsdale Road, Burton on Trent, was also ordered to pay an £800 victim surcharge and court costs of £85.A prosecution application that he be asked to forfeit the Pontiac Firebird was not granted.