A man behind the wheel of an Audi mowed down a teenager who he believed had stolen his friend's phone.
Ibraheem Anwar, 23, was out with friends in Rusholme, Manchester when the 14-year-old ran down Claremont Road, hiding behind a van before turning onto Heald Place. University student Anwar was following behind in an Audi A4, the Manchester Evening News reports. He mounted the kerb and drove at the boy, who is unable to be named for legal reasons.
The teenager tripped and fell onto the road as he was attempting to get away - but a court was tpld Anwar kept driving at him. Manchester Crown Court heard that the boy was left with several traumatic injuries, such as a fractured pelvis and damage to his lungs, spleen and head. It's understood that he made a total recovery.
Anwar, from Trafford, told jurors that prior to the incident, on July 13 last year, he met two friends and was travelling to the Curry Mile, Wilmslow Road. He said he stopped his car in Rusholme and that after he had parked up, one of his friends started smoking cannabis. The boy, he said, then approached and offered to sell them weed.
Anwar said his friend declined the offer and that the boy asked the passenger to hand over his phone so he could put in his number. The defendant claimed the teenager then ran off with the device. The incident was captured on CCTV footage. It showed the boy staggering and falling onto the road as the car continued to be driven at him - before he was crushed underneath, and he was briefly dragged down the road.
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A man behind the wheel of an Audi mowed down a teenager he believed had stolen his friend's phone (MEN MEDIA)Police linked the car to Anwar. He handed himself in a day later, telling police: "My whole life's over, mate." In a later statement, he told cops: "He has just fell right underneath the car and I was just, I don't know man. "I didn't mean to do it, it is just a big mistake." The boy, who has not cooperated with the prosecution, was found with a machete. At trial, prosecutors argued Anwar intentionally drove over the teenager.
Anwar, who previously admitted dangerous driving, said he didn't know that the boy was underneath the car, claiming he was trying to 'block' the boy in a bid to retrieve the phone. But the accountancy and finance student was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm after a jury rejected his claims. He was cleared of attempted murder.
Mitigating, Russell Fortt said: “His remorse has been genuine from day one. This was not a vulnerable 14-year-old. He realises he did wrong. It was one of those sliding door moments and he wishes he hadn’t gone through the door he went through.” Sentencing, Judge Hilary Manley said: “Regardless of what he did and didn’t do, it was and always will be wholly disproportionate to have driven at a person as you did.
"However, having observed you during the trial, I am satisfied you acted entirely in a spur of the moment and you are remorseful.” Anwar, of Lytham Road, Flixton, Trafford, was jailed for two-and-a-half years and banned from driving for three years and three months.
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