Khia Whitehead trial: Cop at wheel of speeding patrol car which hit boy, 15, while on 999 call out tells jury 'no words can ever express' how sorry she is
A police officer at the wheel of a speeding patrol car which crashed into a boy of 15 while responding to a 999 call - causing the lad catastrophic brain injuries - has admitted to a jury her driving was careless.With the boy's family watching on, she told court: "There's no words that can ever begin to say how sorry I am, how sorry I am this happened. There's nothing that can make it right.
Asked by her barrister David Temkin KC if she accepted her driving caused the injuries Khia suffered, she replied: "Yes." The officer said that although she admitted careless driving she did not accept her driving was dangerous. After joining GMP she said she was handed a 'basic driving authority' after spending half-an-hour 'driving around' with a senior colleague. She agreed she knew this 'authority' did not give her powers to ignore traffic laws and that she still had to abide by the Highway Code when responding to incidents.
First PC Meulemeester went to take a statement from a victim of domestic violence and as she was preparing the file back at the station she was asked to relieve colleagues at a hospital, the court was told. It was en route she learned the man was armed with a knife, had used cocaine and had been threatened to torch his mother's house and was in the street smashing up cars, the court heard.
The officer, pressed on why she had moved into the 'wrong lane' to negotiate a traffic island, said she had seen the police car ahead go around a stationary car and she repeated she had wanted to 'get to the scene'. Mr Temkin reminded the defendant it was a wet night in a residential area and, asked how the conditions on the road impacted her driving, the PC answered: "I don't remember the rain being as bad as it was but I was making certain differences like the windscreen wiper was going I think."The defendant said she became aware of two boys as she passed the traffic island and they were 'in the middle of the road stationary'.
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