Dangerous driver who killed teenagers while ‘showing off’ at car meet is jailed

A dangerous driver who was “showing off” his heavily modified vehicle at a car meet when he killed two teenagers and seriously injured two others has been jailed for 13-and-a-half years.

Dhiya Al Maamoury, 56, lost control of his blue and white Nissan Skyline – which had his two adult sons inside – and ploughed into a group of pedestrians who were gathered on the pavement at the side of the A457 Oldbury Road in Oldbury, near Birmingham, at around 11.30pm on November 20, 2022.

The collision killed Liberty Charris, 16, and 19-year-old Ben Corfield, and seriously injured Ethan Kilburn, who was 21, and Ebonie Parkes, who was 20 at the time.

Family members of the victims sobbed in the public gallery at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday as the extensive list of injuries they suffered were read out.

Despite attempts by police officers, who arrived moments after the collision, and paramedics, both Liberty and Ben died at the scene.

Prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC told the court the car, which had been imported from Japan around 18 months before the collision, had been modified so the exhaust would spit fire and had a turbo engine fitted.

She said Al Maamoury had been driving at speeds of between 54 and 57mph on the 40mph stretch of road and was “fishtailing” before he lost control completely and ploughed into the group on the pavement.

She said: “The cause of this collision was not that he was driving too fast, although clearly he was speeding. Other vehicles had driven at faster speeds on this same stretch.

“What caused this was the defendant accelerating excessively, as he booted it the back end of his car lost traction with the road and he then began to head towards the central reservation. He tried to over correct and lost control completely.

“He wasn’t under the influence of alcohol or drugs. What he was doing was cruising and showing off, driving dangerously in an area full of pedestrians.”

Arrested at the scene, Al Maamoury claimed he had taken his sons to the meet as they liked to photograph cars and denied speeding, saying the car went to the curb “by itself” and that he was simply on his way home and had made a U-turn at the roundabout.

Ms Heeley said Snapchat and CCTV footage proved this was not true, adding: “He had been in a side road, pressing his accelerator before joining the dual carriageway.

“He denied in interview that he was showing off. The prosecution point to the social media material to demonstrate that is exactly what he was doing.”

Fighting back tears, Damian Corfield, Ben’s father, told the court how his life ended the night Al Maamoury killed his son.

He said: “He was struck down on the pavement where he should have been safe. He didn’t come home. He will never come home.

“The son we had waited for for so long was gone forever. The reason I lived was taken away from me. The son I cherished and loved so dearly is gone.

“My son, my best mate, my business partner and confidant. All I do is count down the days until I can be with him again.”

Liberty’s mother Tracy Charris cried as she paid tribute to her “larger than life” daughter who was a “force to be reckoned with”.

She said: “I had always wanted a little girl and from the moment she was born, it was me and her against the world. I would have died for her.

“She was so bright and bubbly, she loved everything and everyone. Her absence is deafening.”

She added: “I am so full of hate it consumes me. I am truly devastated by the loss of my Liberty and it is too much to bear.”

Al Maamoury looked off into the distance in the dock as he listened to the tributes through an Arabic interpreter.

After initially pleading not guilty in March to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, Al Maamoury changed his pleas and admitted his guilt on the day he was due to face a trial in September.

He appeared in the dock on Friday wearing a grey suit and a shirt and carrying two plastic bags.

Balbir Singh, defending Al Maamoury, said the consequences of what happened that evening were “not intended, not envisaged and not foreseen”.

He said Al Maamoury and his family had been displaced from Iraq due to the Gulf War and said he was of “positive, good character” who has “worked hard, brought up his family and moved to this country where he has continued to work hard”.

He said: “He is full of regret and remorse at what has happened. Custody will weigh heavily on him and those he cares for.”

Judge Michael Chambers KC said Al Maamoury’s vehicle was “powerful, loud, noisy and aggressive” as he jailed him for 13 years and six months for one count of causing death by dangerous driving, with a 13-and-a-half year sentence for the second count of causing death by dangerous driving and a 32-month sentence for each count of causing serious injury by dangerous driving to run concurrently.

He was also banned from driving for 14 years to take into account his prison sentence, of which he is likely to serve two-thirds.

Judge Chambers said: “You deliberately carried out a highly dangerous manoeuvre in order to show off to the crowd by accelerating hard in a Nissan that you had deliberately modified in order to increase its power.

“You did so in clear close proximity to a crowd of spectators who had lined the road and included the four victims in this case.

“As a result you lost control of your car with catastrophic results. To bury a child is a parent’s worse nightmare.

“No sentence that I can impose can possibly put the clock back, nor should it be seen as an attempt to put value on the loss of life.

“In 2022 there were regular car meets organised via social media in order to show off or race. These events attract large numbers of people, particularly young people.

“It is obvious against that background that police were concerned about the risk to members of the public.

“The dangers were obvious and should have been obvious to you.”