A Ghanaian delivery driver, Colin Agyei, has been jailed for six years after taking an illegal shortcut that ended with the death of a five-year-old boy in Leeds.
Agyei, 32, from Knottingley in West Yorkshire, was sentenced at Leeds Crown Court after being found guilty of causing the death of Abdullah Ebrahim by dangerous driving.
The tragedy happened on July 7, 2022, when Agyei, a Ghanaian, was driving a Nissan Note along Back Camberley Street in Beeston, a narrow back street not generally used by vehicles.
The jury took just 40 minutes to find Agyei guilty of causing death by dangerous driving
The court heard that Agyei drove past a clearly marked no entry sign and entered the road while making deliveries. He struck Abdullah as the youngster ran across the street.
Abdullah was taken to hospital but died shortly afterwards.
The case has left his mother, Salma Begum, carrying a grief that she says has never eased. In a victim statement, she described the devastating moment she found her son lying on the ground.
“What I cannot understand, and what I will never forget, is that he failed to stop and left my child there,” she said.
She said the image of Abdullah lying alone on the road had remained with her every day for four years.
Begum also told the court that she had been forced to relive the tragedy repeatedly during the lengthy legal proceedings.
She said she listened as Agyei claimed he did not see her son and that she believed his account changed several times.
“For me and my family, however, the pain did not end with that verdict,” she said.
The prosecution case centred on Agyei’s decision to enter a road where vehicles were not supposed to be. Investigators found that although he was travelling at about 15mph, the narrow nature of the street meant vehicles could not safely travel there at more than about 7mph.
Detective Sergeant Steve Suggitt of West Yorkshire Police said the collision was completely avoidable had Agyei obeyed the no entry sign.
The jury took just 40 minutes to find Agyei guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.
Judge Tom Bayliss KC jailed him for six years.
He said Abdullah would not have expected a vehicle to be coming along the road and had no time to react.
The verdict brings a measure of legal closure after four years, but for Abdullah’s family, the loss remains permanent.
Police said no sentence could equate to the lifetime of grief faced by a family robbed of years of memories with a child they loved.
