Remorseless driver caught on CCTV fleeing tragic scene
GRAPHIC CCTV footage of the moment Shahid Tarafdar was mown down by remorseless teenager Martin Joyce was so traumatic the popular father’s family left the courtroom whilst it was played.
It was determined that 18-year-old Joyce was travelling at no less than 40mph in the 30mph zone, although the judge said even 30mph would have been ‘excessive’ given how busy it was with both pedestrians and traffic.
Joyce failed to stop afterwards, leaving Mr Tarafdar stricken in the road, and both bus and CCTV cameras showed him speeding away, running red lights and even mounting the pavement as he tried to force his way through stationary and slow moving traffic.
One of Joyce’s friends got out of the car, ran off and later became a key prosecution witness. However the other, Abdullah Taher, 19, stayed and helped him cover up his crime.
The court was told he and Joyce drove to a street in Beswick, tried to change their appearance by removing items of clothing, before going to a nearby shop to buy baby wipes to clean the car in a bid to remove evidence.
The silver Peugeot 307, which Martin Joyce had bought two days earlier for £480 on Facebook, was later found burned out on the day of the smash, Tuesday, February 7 this year.
Mr Blackshaw said enquiries were ongoing regarding who started the fire but said: “It would seem to have been done if not by, then at the behest of, Martin Joyce.”
Martin Joyce was arrested several days later but said older brother Michael had bought the car and was driving.
Michael Joyce, 21, was arrested and gave a false confession, at one point becoming so emotional police officers had to stop the interview.
Mr Blackshaw said it was a ‘detailed and convincing performance which could have deceived investigators’ had they not had the witness statement of his co-passenger and the CCTV footage.
When the game was up, sick Martin Joyce even went on to blame Mr Taradfar, saying it was his own fault.
Joyce, from Gorton, told a youth worker in prison: “It was his fault, he didn’t look, he didn’t look left or right. He had his tea in a bag.”
He pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving, a separate charge of dangerous driving, driving whilst disqualified and perverting the course of justice at earlier hearings.
He has never passed a driving test and was half-way through a six-month ban imposed in November last year for driving without a licence and a series of other offences which saw him acquire a number of points.
Oliver Jarvis, defending, said: “The deceased was in the road for 1.08 seconds. He was unobserved for 0.64 seconds. The normal reaction time is between 1.5 to two seconds. Experts say that even if he was going at the speed limit a collision would have been unavoidable. His age is an important factor, especially in considering how the defendant conducted himself in the aftermath, I accept that is very serious.
“The defendant is particularly insightful to the damage that he has done because his own father died in awful circumstances some years ago.”
Joyce, who was 17 at the time, was detained for a total of five years in a young offenders’ institution. He will serve just half before he is eligible for parole. He was also banned from driving for seven-and-a-half years and must pass an extended test before he can drive again.
Michael Joyce, also from Gorton, and Taher both admitted perverting the course of justice and were both jailed for 18 months. However, passing sentence Judge Martin Walsh said: “Nothing this court can do can put right the wrong that was done on this fateful day.
“40mph was grossly in excess of the appropriate speed limit given the conditions.
“This is a busy arterial road out of Manchester city centre, surrounded by shops and businesses, is very busy and presents an obvious danger of pedestrians trying to cross the road.
“What happened afterwards was reprehensible.”