Two teenagers were convicted of kidnapping two brothers aged two and four after stealing a car and leaving with the children inside.
The youngsters, aged 15 at the time, claimed they had no idea the young boys were strapped to the back seats when the couple took the Nissan Note from the Selly Park neighborhood to Birmingham in February.
The children’s father dropped off food at a friend’s house at the time and was left to cry hysterically on the street as the car sped past, the city’s lower court heard.
A police chase ensued and – after spotting a police van and oncoming police cars – the teens crashed into two more high-speed vehicles on the busy A38 Bristol Road.
The driver fled, but the two young people were later arrested by armed police.
The older child was not injured in the crash, although the two-year-old sustained a cut to the mouth and a shoulder injury from the straps in his car seat.
Both defendants admitted the aggravated vehicle take, incorporating dangerous driving, at a previous hearing, but denied the kidnapping.
The boy driving the car said he took the vehicle to settle a drug debt of £ 40 and claimed he mistook the children’s father for a delivery driver.
He insisted he didn’t realize the younger brothers were in the car until he was arrested on suspicion of kidnapping.
However, a Birmingham Magistrate’s Court judge accepted evidence from the boys’ father, who said he yelled at the teenagers that his sons were inside the vehicle.
The judge said it was common sense that the children would not have remained silent during the trip, ruling that the younger one had decided to steal the Nissan and the other had “accepted” the theft.
Claiming that he intended to sell the car to pay off debt, the driver described the timing of the accident in court.
“I ‘sandwiched’ the car between two other cars and then ran away,” he said.
“The second I crashed, the airbags went off in my face …
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Source: news.sky.com
This notice was published: 2021-04-21 20:27:00
