Tributes paid to Co. Antrim man killed in Liverpool hit-and-run

Tributes have been paid to a young County Antrim man who was killed in a hit and run incident in Liverpool.

24-year-old Matthew Bradley, who was originally from Glenavy, was with friends on a stag weekend when he was struck by a car in the docks area of the city on Friday night.

Merseyside Police said he was on The Strand near the Hilton hotel and the Albert Dock when he was struck by a grey-coloured BMW at around 11.40pm on Friday night.

By-standers went to the his aid but the driver of the car sped off southbound away from the city centre.

Paramedics gave Matthew first aid at the scene before taking him to the Royal Liverpool University Hospital where, despite the best efforts of doctors, he was pronounced dead a few hours later.

Specially trained family liaison officers have been supporting Matthew’s family and girlfriend who have travelled from Northern Ireland and the south of England to Liverpool following his death.

In a statement, Matthew’s parents Donal and Margaret Bradley, on behalf of his three sisters Claire, Roisin and Megan, and his girlfriend Rhiannon, from Guildford, said:

“Matthew was hugely talented and award-winning in his chosen career of landscape gardening – following in his dad’s footsteps – and had an illustrious career ahead of him.

“He was a funny, kind-hearted and generous young man who will be sorely missed by all that knew him."

The car believed to have been involved has been found and is being forensically examined by Merseyside Police.

Extensive enquiries are being carried out by detectives and roads policing officers to identify and track down the person or people in the vehicle involved in the collision.

Inspector Danny Harris from the roads policing unit appealed for anyone who was driving or walking along the Strand at the time of the collision who may have seen the vehicle before or afterwards.

He said: “This is an extremely serious incident in which a young man has tragically died. We need anyone who saw the collision or remembers seeing a grey or silver-coloured BMW in or around this area to come forward. If you were filming on your mobile phone whilst on this part of the Strand then please review that footage and let us know if it captures anything. If you were driving and had a dash-cam on then again, please look at your footage from that part of your journey and tell us if anything significant is on there.

“The person behind the wheel at the time of this collision knows what has happened and it is important that they do the right thing and come forward and help us understand what has happened. The city is covered by CCTV and we are using every resource at our disposal to investigate this tragedy and will not stop until we have identified and tracked down everyone who was there at the time.”