80mph crash driver has jail term increased
Astle daughter: Issue’s been swept under carpet for too long
A DRIVER who killed his passenger in a high-speed car chase in Birmingham has had his jail term increased.
Leigh Robinson was found guilty of causing the death of his passenger Anthony Moran in the crash in Sutton Coldfield and was jailed for three years and two months.
But after the Solicitor General decided it was “too lenient”, it was increased to four years at the Court of Appeal.
The other motorist involved in the crash, bank manager Sabeel Nazir, was jailed for two years and five months but the Appeal Court refused to increase his term.
The crash happened in Eachelhurst Road, Walmley, in December 2018 when Robinson was driving his Renault Megane and was involved in a chase with Nazir, who was driving an Audi.
Birmingham Crown Court was told Nazir believed Robinson was responsible for an attack on his family and their home.
Both vehicles hit speeds of more than 80mph, undertaking other cars and driving nose to tail.
When a third vehicle failed to give way and pulled out in front of Robinson, a collision took place, in which front seat passenger Mr Moran, 43, suffered fatal injuries. He died four days later.
Robinson initially denied being the driver, saying Mr Moran was behind the wheel. But the unemployed 34-year-old was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving and driving while disqualified and without insurance last November. Nazir, aged 34 and from South Yardley, was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving.
The driver of the third car was convicted of causing death by careless driving while over the prescribed limit and given a suspended jail sentence.
Nazir and Robinson’s sentences were referred to the Court of Appeal by solicitor general Michael Ellis QC MP – who has just been made Acting Attorney General – under the Unduly Lenient Sentence scheme.
The increased sentence was handed down on Tuesday.
After the hearing, Mr Ellis said: “Both men put their lives, and those of their passengers, fellow road users, and innocent bystanders at risk. I welcome the court’s decision to increase Robinson’s sentence.”
CAMPAIGNER Dawn Astle has welcomed the opening of a parliamentary inquiry into the link between playing sport and longterm brain injury, saying the issue has been “swept under the carpet” for too long.
The death of her father Jeff, the former West Bromwich Albion and England striker, in 2002 was determined by a coroner to be the result of a neurodegenerative condition caused by repeated heading of a ball during his professional football career.
MPs on the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee will hear evidence from a range of individuals with a connection to the issue over the coming weeks, and Astle said it had been “a long time coming”.
“I just hope really that the MPs leave no stone unturned,” she said. “For millions of people around the world, we’re huge fans of the game. But for the player, it is just their job, and they should be afforded the same protection from known risks as anybody else in any other job.
“Just because they’re sportsmen shouldn’t mean it doesn’t matter, because it’s part of the game. That’s not acceptable when players are dying.”
The 2019 FIELD study, commissioned by the Football Association and the Professional Footballers’ Association, found professional footballers were three and a half times more likely to die of neurodegenerative disease than age-matched members of the general population.
Astle, who is currently supporting the PFA on an advisory basis, said that study would not have been conducted without the pressure her family placed on the authorities.
“This issue has been swept under the carpet for far too long,” she said.
“The FIELD study wasn’t done out of the goodness of the heart of the FA or the PFA, that study was done because my family wouldn’t let them sweep it under the carpet.
“It was my family who had the meeting with (former FA chairman) Greg Dyke and said ‘you need to be looking back – have we got a problem with our former players?’ And we clearly have. “I suppose Greg wasn’t in charge of the FA when my dad died – (PFA chief executive) Gordon Taylor has been around forever. I want to know why they didn’t do enough.” The dangers of heading were being talked about as far back as 1966 – in a pamphlet included within the Football League Review in 1966, which was included within match programmes. Under the headline ‘Danger in Heading the Ball?’ the article began ‘Perhaps it explains a lot: the allegation by a doctor that
boxing isn’t the only sport that can produce ‘punchies’.
Astle added: “It is time for the Government to get involved. I’ve asked the PFA and Gordon what they have done in the 19 years since my dad died. I’ve asked the FA the same question.
“It’s all right Greg Dyke apologising and saying ‘we haven’t done enough’ – why didn’t you? It’s all right saying to Gordon, ‘what did you do? How many players were affected?’ He didn’t know. He still doesn’t know. Why doesn’t he? He should know.
“This isn’t a metatarsal injury or a broken leg, this is something that is killing former players at a hugely increased rate.”
The PFA has been approached for comment.
The FA says it takes the issue extremely seriously and feels it is leading the way in commissioning research into the issue and welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the inquiry. “We have a clear and unwavering commitment, both financially and with resource, to support objective, robust and thorough research going forward,” the governing body said. “We are collaborating closely with our independently-chaired Research Taskforce to expand our own research studies in this area.
“Most recently, alongside the PFA, we have issued a call for research for new independent evidence-based res-earch into the increased risk of death from neurodegenerative disorders in former professional footballers.”
MOSES Christensen was a twisted ticking timebomb – an individual intoxicated by bloodlust. A diet of violent video games had spawned an unholy desire to kill without motive, to kill for killing’s sake.
Christensen, a loner who often slept rough, possessed the psychosis, sadism and immorality that is the stuff of Islamic State foot-soldiers. Indeed, he wanted to fight for the Islamic State.
Before that he yearned to be a ‘lone soldier’ in the Royal Marines, but was given short shrift. As a recruitment officer later pointed out: “He thought he had the skills – although he didn’t have all the skills.”
Christensen lived in a twilight fantasy world – he also dreamed of a life spent sleeping under tarpaulin on a faraway beach and drafted a ludicrous plan to kayak around the UK.
As forensic psychiatrist Dr Dinesh Maganty put it: “I would not see his actions of going around the UK in a kayak, with no seafaring experience and with a dog in it, as rational.”
With each day, the twilight faded. Every reality check loosened Christensen’s grip on the world.
The three-day Marine training course was a disaster. The kayak marathon was jettisoned.
Soon, the only dreams dark and destructive.
Privately educated and intelligent, the 22-year-old, allegedly in the grip of psychotic breakdown, sated his desire to murder on August 13 last year. He had said he wanted to kill someone “just for the sake of killing somebody”.
He realised his own nightmarish vision and succumbed to his demons.
He roamed remote Shropshire beauty spot Brown Clee Hill – an area Christensen had walked to from his Black Country home – in search of a victim.
He found the ideal target in pensioner Richard Hall, a gentle family man who died after spending the day varnishing his fence.
The 70-year-old grandfather and former company director, from Perton, South Staffordshire, told his wife he was “popping out” for a regular walk.
Tragically, Christensen, desperate for blood, spotted Mr Hall through the fog and his craving to take a life bubbled to beyond boiling point.The
left were total strangers nodded to each other, then crazed Christensen “threw himself” on the elderly man.
It could have been anyone who was subjected to a sustained attack dubbed “savage and animalistic” by the killer himself. Christensen wanted to kill for killing’s sake. Richard Hall simply crossed his path.
The former company director suffered 20 wounds to his face, neck and chest in a motiveless, random attack.
The worst injuries were to his hand and skull, which was penetrated.
His body was found close to a communications mast near the summit. Christensen, wringing wet after wading through a stream, walked to a nearby cottage and confessed.
When quizzed by police called to the scene, Christensen calmly announced he had “cut himself by committing a murder”.
He remained chillingly detached during interview. Asked if he regretted his actions, Christensen replied: “Yeah, but quite minimal.
“I would rather murder and be killed than participate in society.
“I would like to point out that this wasn’t just an outburst of emotion or something,” he added. He craved to kill “silently and effectively without there being any witnesses”.
Moses Christensen was a twisted, ticking timebomb. He is mad, but not criminally insane. There is a difference. A jury at Stafford Crown Court this week decided Christensen knew what he was doing was wrong, he planned the act.
As prosecutor Adrian Keeling QC told the court: “He was able to understand the nature of his own conduct – that he formed rational judgments and made rational decisions.
“The simple reality is that he killed because that is exactly what he wanted to do.”
He is one of many disturbed murderers and will be sentenced as such on March 16.
Christensen, autistic and plagued by depression, was a ticking timebomb – and the authorities realised it too late.
Just three days before the barbaric attack, police issued an urgent appeal to find the missing, deranged loner.
Before walking to one of the Midlands’ wildest corners, Christensen confessed to a relative that he wanted to kill three teachers and devour the flesh of one of them.
West Midlands Police urged members of the public not to approach the missing man. Its bulletin stated: “His family are extremely concerned for his wellbeing, and we need to find him as soon as possible.
“Moses is 6ft 2ins tall and physically fit and healthy. He was last seen wearing a black, long sleeved top, dark shorts, brownish grey army boots and a black leather Australian style hat.
“He could be in possession of a knife, and we’d urge members of the public not to approach him if seen, but to please call us on 999 immediately.”
The words – and image of a haunted individual – were, tragically, not seen by Mr Hall.
One day after the killing, officers announced Chistensen had been found with the Facebook message: Moses Christensen who went missing from his home in Stourbridge on Sunday (August 9) has been found. Thanks to everyone who shared our appeal.”
Understandably devoid of details of the terrible crime, the message was met with online relief.
In a terrible irony, one member of the public posted: “About time we had some good news!” announced: “Thank God.”
Christensen slipped relatively quickly from an oddball on the fringes of society – one psychiatrist referred to his “worse than curious” eating habits – to a dark, brooding public danger.
His mother Margarita Henderson watched the slide. A year before the murder, he had turned to violent video games and pondered joining Islamic State, she told the court.
In the weeks before the crime, her son became depressed and morose.
By the summer, Christensen was close to meltdown. His family contacted a mental health crisis team after he aired fantasies of feasting on a teacher.
Christensen had honed his body in preparation for a killing spree, he told his father.
The mental health crisis team was contacted, but the troubled young man refused to cooperate with psychiatrists.
Another
Richard’s life was so brutally and senselessly taken away by what can only be described as an act of pure evil. Mr Hall’s family
Shortly after her son went missing, Ms Henderson found a packaging for a knife in his bedroom. She feared what would follow. Her gut instincts were correct.
“From what Moses had been saying, I knew he wasn’t well,” she told the jury.
Following the murder conviction, Mr Hall’s heartbroken family dubbed Christensen “pure evil”.
In a statement, they said: “Richard was a brilliant man in every way, 70 years young, an amazing husband, father and grandad. A man with so much to live for whose life was so brutally and senselessly taken away by what can only be described as an act of pure evil, perpetrated by pure evil.
“It beggars belief that this could happen to someone simply taking a walk on a summer’s evening in such a remote and beautiful location. We, as a family, have been left shattered by these events and will never fully com
prehend what has place.
“No sentence imposed by any court could give us complete justice for Richard. A truly wonderful man who was loved, admired and respected by so many people and his memory will never fade.”
West Mercia senior investigating officer DCI Mark Bellamy said Mr Hall’s family had “understandably been left shattered by his loss”.
He added: “Richard was simply taking a walk on Brown Clee Hill when he was tragically killed in a senseless attack. Moses Christensen is clearly a dangerous individual and I’m pleased the jury has reached the verdict it has and found him guilty of
tragically taken murder. He had no motive to kill Richard Hall other than Richard was sadly in the wrong place at the wrong time. Moses Christensen’s violent and horrific actions have left a family without a husband, father and grandad, a man who was respected by many, and our thoughts remain with them at this very difficult time.”
Moses Christensen remains twisted, ticking timebomb.
Judge Mr Justice Pepperall warned a life sentence is inevitable. Christensen will be removed from a society in which he poses a clear and present danger. Tragically, it took the death of Richard Hall for society – and mental health professionals – to become aware of that.
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