Drug-driver son killed his mum

A cannabis- taking motorist killed his mother after smashing into a parked lorry and was trapped for an hour next to her body, a court heard.

Omar Khaldoun had been driving like a “bat out of hell” according to a witness when the accident happened near Dover last August, while lorries were held in a queuing system.

He pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving after the incident which claimed the life of Safir Amari.

A judge heard a plea from his family not to send the 25-year-old with a first-class business degree to prison – despite the fact he was driving above the legal drug limit.

Judge Simon James decided to suspend a two-year sentence for two years after saying: “It is impossible not to be moved by the letters from the family.

“Whatever I do or say will do nothing to address the fact you must live with the burden of the knowledge you are responsible for the death of your own mother.”

Khaldoun was also on bail at the time of the tragic crash for being behind the wheel while under the influence of cannabis, and had received four police cautions for possessing the drug.

He had been driving his mother and his five-year-old brother to France along the A20.

Prosecutor David Malone told Canterbury Crown Court one motorist described the crash as “the worst he had ever seen”.