Dad ‘did not bother’ looking after son, 3, who died after being run over, jury hears

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Jurors have heard closing speeches in the trial of a man accused of killing his own son in a farm vehicle incident. Neil Speakman, 39, was operating a telehandler, used to pick up wood chippings, at his farm in Bury when he reversed and ‘drove over’ Albie Speakman at around midday on July 16, 2022, a court previously heard.

The child - who had been hit while he played in the garden with their dogs - was left with catastrophic head injuries and was pronounced dead at hospital hours later, jurors were told.

The incident happened in a yard next to a small garden at the front of the house where Mr Speakman had left his son to play, Minshull Street Crown Court heard.

While Mr Speakman had used the machine before, he was not trained and the court heard that the machine was ‘defective’, as one of the wing mirrors was missing and the other was ‘so dirty as to be useless’. “The prosecution case is that Albie died as a result of his father’s negligence which created a serious and obvious risk of death, and the circumstances of the breach by Neil Speakman of the duty of care which he owed his son were so exceptionally bad and reprehensible that the breach amounts to gross negligence,” prosecutor John Elvidge KC said.