Bury dad who ran over his toddler found NOT GUILTY of gross negligence manslaughter
Albie Speakman suffered catastrophic injuries after 39-year-old Neil Speakman, reversed a telehandler vehicle into him in Bury in 2022
A jury at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court has found a Bury dad not guilty of gross negligence manslaughter.
It's after his son Albie Speakman suffered catastrophic injuries after Neil Speakman, 39, reversed a telehandler vehicle into him in Bury, Greater Manchester, on July 16 2022.
The collision happened in a yard next to a small garden area at the front of the farmhouse in Bentley Hall Road, Walshaw.
Speakman used the farm as a base for his log and woodchip business and had borrowed the heavy lifting vehicle from a neighbour to put woodchips into bags, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court was told.
The prosecution also told the court the area was insecure so that Albie was free to wander into the yard where his father was working and that the Kramer telehandler had various defects.
Giving evidence during the trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court, Speakman told jurors that because the telehandler had a missing wing mirror he would "check profusely" for blind spots but he did not see his son.
He said: "I am always careful in what I do. He was my little boy."
Speakman told his barrister Alexander Leach KC that he was "more than competent" at driving his neighbour's telehandler, which he said he had used "200/300 times easily".
He said: "I looked over both shoulders a number of times, I have gone fully round, 180 degrees.
"If I thought Albie was even an inch into that yard I would never have moved that vehicle. If I thought for one second he was not on that grass I would not even have moved that stupid thing."
He told prosecutor John Elvidge KC, cross-examining: "It was a tragic accident. I made a mistake."
"I messed up, I shouldn't have left him there."
He added: "It's one bit of human error for a split second which has ruined my life."
The prosecution alleged Speakman disregarded a warning in 2020 from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) about the use of another piece of farm machinery with a lifting bucket attached.
A letter was said to have been sent by the HSE to warn him of potentially fatal consequences after the emergence of a video posted on social media, which showed a teenager inside the bucket in the air as the defendant moves the vehicle and is heard to say: "I'm going to drop you".
But Speakman denied he had received any such letter and told the court the family had had problems with missing post.
Speakman pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act in failing to ensure, so far as reasonably practical, the health and safety of Albie.
Rayo Premium