The mum of a six-year-old girl hurled across a road by a cowardly speeding e-bike rider has spoken of her anguish.
The innocent child was flung into the air and slid across the roadway before her head collided with the kerb, leaving her with a fractured skull. Miraculously she did not suffer bleeding on the brain and has recovered physically but she has since shown behavioural problems and personality changes.
The rider, 24-year-old Lewis Lally, who picked up the e-bike, looked down at his victim and sped off, was jailed for a total of two and a half years and banned from driving for three years on Tuesday, June 14. In an victim impact statement made six weeks after the incident on Windsor Road, Tuebrook on March 4 this year, the child’s mum told how her daughter used to be “very playful.”
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She used to sleep through the night and was polite and courteous, but now she no longer routinely sleeps well and suffers from nightmares. Her daughter has also changed in that she gets easily frustrated and is more argumentative because of her frustrations
The statement read: "When out of the house she is especially afraid of pedal cycles and seeks comfort by holding my hand. Before the collision she was not like this, she was a confident young child when out and about."
Her mum said she is taking her to open spaces to expose her to bikes and people and described it as “horrible” having to see the changes in her including being anxious when out and about. Her daughter, who was in Alder Hey for a week after the crash, was off school for two weeks and only did half days for her first week back.
The mum was also off work for three weeks to care for her and had suffered financially. Her daughter is waiting to see a psychiatrist “to tackle her sleep and behavioural issues” and has had a follow-up neurology appointment.
Her mum said: “When I received the telephone call telling me she had been knocked down I was in shock and panicked when I arrived to see her, it was horrible and is still horrible.
"I am so relieved her injuries were not worse and her recovery is going well as it could. It could have been very much worse.”
Liverpool Crown Court heard at the time of the incident Lally had a ten month suspended prison sentence hanging over him for possessing cannabis with intent to supply. The day after he got a ferry to France and went to Barcelona with a friend and was not arrested until March 27 after his return.
His lawyer, Simon Christie, said the holiday was pre-arranged before the crash.
Sentencing Lally, of Belvoir Road, Widnes, Judge Brian Cummings, QC said: "I cannot accept there is any great remorse on your part. Your first instinct despite what you had done to this innocent little girl was to save your own skin and try to avoid the consequences.”
Frank Dillon, prosecuting, said that Lally, who was wearing a balaclava and had a mobile phone to his ear seconds before if not at the time of impact, was travelling at “an inordinately high speed.” The bike has never been found but police officers recovered the back off a mobile phone and his DNA profile was found on it.
After initial denials he pleaded guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Judge Cummings told him: "You hit this little girl at full pelt. The impact occurred just off screen but the consequences are clearly seen on the footage. She is seen sliding along the roadway for a significant distance, stopping only when her head collides with the kerb."
The Judge said he accepted he had had a wretched childhood but he had adversely affected the childhood of his victim. Michael Bagley, defending, read a letter that Lally has written to his victim and her family in which said he was “sorry and shocked by my actions’ which he wished had never happened.
The letter read: “I should have stayed, I panicked, I was in shock and very bad pain, I broke my ankle. I hope you are ok and recover well."
Mr Bagley said that the defendant had found his mum dead at home last August and “he accepts from that point forward his mind simply was not right…his general outlook became skewed.”
He has been in custody since his arrest and has spoken to a priest and hopes to receive counselling.
