Two jailed after boy, 10, hurt in hit and run

TWO men who left a boy with serious injuries after a hit and run incident on stolen motorbikes were jailed yesterday.

The ten-year-old was thrown into the air on a pedestrian crossing after being struck by Connor Whalen, who had gone through a red light.

Whalen, 20, was yesterday sentenced to three years and eight months in prison after admitting to injuring the boy in Ferry Road, Edinburgh, on August 19.

Marc Miller, 23, was jailed for two years and 11 months after pleading guilty to stealing a motorcycle and driving dangerously.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court heard they were already disqualified from holding a driving licence when they each stole a motorbike in the city.

After the crash, Whalen ran off and was picked up as a pillion passenger by Miller but the pair were soon arrested and a stolen Triumph Daytona motorcycle was later found in the city’s West End.

The boy, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, was taken to the city’s Royal Hospital for Sick Children for surgery and needed specialist treatment and counselling.

Solicitor Steven Donald said Whalen took the bike ‘to alleviate boredom’. Sentencing the men yesterday, Sheriff Thomas Welsh, QC, said that their conduct had been ‘disgraceful and extremely dangerous’.