‘RACING’ DRIVERS SENT DOWN
Girl aged 10 badly hurt when car hither on city street
Two “racing” motorists have been put behind bars after a 10-year-old girl was hospitalised after being hit by one of their cars.
Neil Monck’s Rover, that he was driving “like a lunatic”, ploughed into the little girl and her 11-year-old friend as they walked along the pavement in Hendon, with one of their mothers on April 3, 2015.
The young victim suffered a broken collar bone and right arm, multiple cuts and grazes, internal bleeding to her leg and needed two operations during a fortnight in hospital.
Her friend suffered whiplash injuries, cuts and bruising, but did not require hospital treatment.
Monck, who was over the drink-drive limit, admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving and confessed he had been racing another vehicle.
Simon Perry denied the charge and was cleared by a jury, but convicted of the lesser offence of dangerous driving.
Jurors accepted he was no longer racing in his Vauxhall Corsa when Monck’s car hit the girls.
Prosecutor Graham O’Sullivan told the court Monck, 30, and Perry, 29, had left their nearby homes in Cairo Street at about the same time that day, which was unplanned.
The pair were encouraged to race when a youth at the side of the street did a “flamboyant bow” as they passed.
The court heard the neighbours, who knew each other, travelled at speeds of about 50mph in the residential area before Perry pulled back and out of the race.
Monck, who carried on at speed, lost control of his car, which an onlooker said he was “bombing” and “driving like a lunatic”.
Mr O’Sullivan said: “Witnesses describe his car spinning. His car mounted the pavement and ended up in the opposite direction to which it had been driven.”
Monck told police he had “decided to go for it” when he noticed Perry’s car behind him.
He admitted he had been drinking beer before he got in the car. The court heard Perry saw the girls lying on the pavement after they had been hit by Monck’s car, but did not stop to offer any help.
Judge Paul Sloan QC sentenced Monck to 16 months behind bars with a two-year driving ban.
He sentenced Perry to nine months behind bars with an 18-month road ban.
The judge said it was an aggravating feature of Perry’s behaviour that he “failed to stop at the scene where there had been a collision”.
Paul Cross, defending Monck, said the race was “spontaneous” and unplanned, which prosecutors accept.
Peter Walsh, defending Perry, said there had been no prior arrangement between the two men to meet or race their cars that day.