A remorseless driver who raced his friend through the streets before his pal fatally crashed drove past the horror scene and went home. Craig Norman, 45, had been pursuing James Dickson after the pair spotted each other in Little Hulton, Salford.
Mr Dickson, a father-of-three, reached speeds of up to 99mph in a 30mph zone as Norman followed, reaching more than 70mph himself. Manchester Crown Court heard that 37-year-old Mr Dickson hit another car when he tried to overtake it, before losing control and ploughing into some railings.
He suffered fatal head injuries and a passenger in his Fiat 500, a car stolen weeks earlier, was flung from the car and seriously hurt. Norman was able to stop his Audi following the collision involving Mr Dickson on Manchester Road East, at about 8.45pm on Sunday, June 19, Father's Day.
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Instead of stopping and helping, he drove home. "Having seen what had happened, you made no attempt to stop or give any assistance to your lifelong friend," Judge Timothy Smith told him.
Career criminal Norman, who has committed 146 previous offences and was once stabbed by the owner of a house he broke into, denied he had been racing Mr Dickson and described the crash as a 'tragic accident' for which he was not at fault. "You have demonstrated absolutely no remorse for your actions that night," the judge told Norman, as he handed him a 14 year extended sentence.
"It is, in my view, only surprising that given your record an incident such as this has not happened before." Both Norman and Mr Dickson were disqualified from driving at the time, and Mr Dickson was also over the drink drive limit.
Both cars could be heard 'revving' their engines near the Stocks hotel pub, before both men became involved in what the judge described as a 'quite appalling' piece of 'reckless and competitive driving'. Mr Dickson's sister Kelly said in a statement: "I know James has been an idiot and I know he should not have been driving that car, but I truly believe if Craig Norman had not been egging him on and goading him into a race, James would never have driven that way and he would not be dead.
"I don't want people to remember James for the bad decision he made that day, I want them to remember he was a son, brother, father and uncle." She said her younger brother had a 'heart of gold' and was a 'kindhearted' person.
"I have had so many messages telling me how kind James was," she said. She said the death of his father had hit him hard, and he'd began drinking more.
Defending, Michael James said Mr Dickson's driving had also made a 'significant contribution' to the crash. "There has never been any attempt by Craig Norman as it were to criticise or bad-mouth James Dickson," he said. "He was a friend to Mr Norman, he regrets the loss of a friend."
Norman, of Longshaw Drive, Little Hulton, was unanimously found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving after a trial. He was sentenced to nine years in prison, to serve two-thirds in custody, and given an extra five years on licence.
He was also banned from driving for eight years.
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