A driver who was 'drifting and skidding' around Sutton Coldfield town centre has been jailed for nine years and four months for killing a young woman walking along the pavement. Saleh Mahmoud Taha Hassan, 20, lost control of his Toyota Corolla and ploughed into Natasha Thorp, 21, and her best friend Cerys Cartwright on Brassington Avenue just before midnight on August 22 last year.
Hassan, of Viscount Road, Sutton Coldfield, had only passed his test less than two months earlier and was not insured to drive that night, despite having made Uber Eats deliveries earlier that evening. He had pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, causing serious injury by dangerous driving and causing death by driving while uninsured.
Perfect night out turns to tragedy
Ms Thorp, who attended university in Liverpool, and Ms Cartwright had been enjoying a night out in Sutton Coldfield on Friday, August 22. At 11.30pm they left the ASH pub and made their way to The Station pub. Prosecutor Nicholas Berry, relaying Ms Cartwright's account of events, said: "Both she and Ms Thorp were in good spirits and walking along Brassington Avenue linking arms as they typically do. Ms Thorp was walking closest to the kerb and road. Ms Cartwright on the inside."
"The next thing Ms Cartwright was able to remember was waking up on the floor and hearing voices around her. She describes there coming a stage when she saw emergency services working on Ms Thorp," he added. Ms Cartwright, speaking from the witness box at the sentencing hearing, told Hassan 'you are to blame', as he listened via a video link from a booth at HMP Brinsford in Staffordshire. She stated she had been enjoying the 'perfect' night out with Ms Thorp, her best friend of ten years who she described as 'full of life' and a 'ray of sunshine'.
Ms Thorp's father described his daughter as 'one in a million' with her 'own unique style'. "When she walked into a room it was like someone had switched a light on," he said. A shrine with hundreds of tributes and flowers was created in Ms Thorp's memory at Gracechurch Shopping Centre. Nearly 1,000 people attended her funeral.
'Horrific' driving recorded
Hassan had been driving his Toyota Corolla with his friend between Birmingham and Tamworth that day. He had carried out a few Uber Eats deliveries, helped his mother with a flat tyre and attended a mosque. That night he claimed he was going to pick his sister up from the railway station.
CCTV captured him 'drifting and skidding' around the A5127 Brassington Avenue as well as going around a roundabout multiple times. At one point he lost control only to regain it. Undeterred he then got his friend in the passenger seat to film him drifting the car. But then as he left a roundabout he had circled multiple times he lost control again and veered towards the pavement and into Ms Thorp and Ms Cartwright.
The collision occurred at 11.53pm. Hassan had been clocked doing 46mph on the 30mph road beforehand. An examination of the Toyota also revealed a defect in the brakes which would have been obvious to him while driving around, the court heard. Judge Dean Kershaw described CCTV footage of the collision as 'horrific'.
Judge passes sentence
Judge Kershaw, passing sentence, said: "It was an irresponsible, reckless and deliberate piece of driving that took away the life of Natasha Thorp and seriously hurt Cerys." He continued: "There is no other way I can see this can be described in a way other than showing off. There is nothing that can be described as driving that was successful. It was simply stupid."
"The reason for this crash was you making a conscious decision to slide and skid the wheels of that car. You decided you wanted to have it recorded. That tells me you were showing off. There was no other purpose otherwise to have it recorded. You didn’t want to record it to examine your driving afterwards and learn from it. You were recording it to be boastful. It is some sort of twisted reality - it is not a thing at all to be proud of," he added.
Judge Kershaw concluded: "If you had been driving properly in a car with proper brakes at the appropriate and lawful speed you would have avoided Ms Thorp because the stopping distance is said to have been just over 10 metres. When you lost control she was 26 metres away." Ms Thorp's cause of death was recorded as a traumatic head injury caused by unsurvivable blunt force trauma.
Hassan had no previous driving convictions. Ben Williams, defending, stated his 'idiotically reckless behaviour' was 'utterly out of keeping with his ordinarily positively good character'. He told the court Hassan had achieved excellent A-Level grades and had planned to go university himself as well as set up his own business. The barrister added he had written a letter to the victims' families acknowledging the 'devastating consequences' of his own actions. Mr Williams emphasised Hassan had expressed remorse and repentance privately, commenting himself that he deserves to go to prison.
Hassan was jailed for nine years and four months as well as banned from driving for 12 years and eight months at Birmingham Crown Court on Friday, September 18.
