A grieving mum who came face-to-face with her son’s killer told him: ‘I hope you rot in hell.’

Lisa Conway delivered an emotional speech before Oliver Christian, 29, was jailed for causing death by careless driving.

The defendant had crashed into a scrambler bike, leaving one rider with severe injuries and Patrick Conway with wounds that would ultimately claim his life.

As both lay suffering on the road he fled the scene, changed his clothes and ‘went to ground’ in a hotel.

Christian was sentenced to 20 months in jail on Monday after pleading guilty to causing death by careless driving.

The dad-of-two had been driving on the wrong side of the road in Stockbridge Village, Liverpool, when he hit the bike on the afternoon of April 20 last year.

As others rushed to help Gary Hewitt, and pillion passenger Patrick, Christian fled the scene, changed his clothes and stayed in a hotel for a night before turning himself into police.

He watched from the dock yesterday as Lisa described the devastating impact of her 22-year-old son’s death.

Accusing him of showing no remorse, she said: ‘Oliver Christian, you are not sorry for killing my boy. You ran away and left my son dying on a pavement.

‘Oliver Christian I hope you rot in hell as from this day you will mean nothing to me, you will mean nothing to my family and nothing to his friends because cowards do not need to have a second thought.’

Lisa had attended the scene of the crash and found her son fighting for his life. When he died his organs were donated to save the lives of others.

She said: ‘I had to watch the life being sucked out of my son for days and there was nothing I could do… Oliver Christian put me in that situation.

‘After Patrick’s death I just wanted to die. I stopped eating and stopped looking after myself. My weight plummeted to just six stone in a matter of weeks and I didn’t care.’

Lisa thanked friends and family, and her son’s friends, for the love and support they had given to her, crediting them with helping her come to terms with her heartbreak.

She told of the pain of returning home and realising he would not be there, and how she spends time in his room to remain close to him.

She added: ‘Oliver Christian has robbed me of those cuddles. Patrick told me he every day how much he loved me, that was the way I brought him up from the first time I held him in my arms I told him how much I loved him.

‘Patrick was my golden boy. He was my sunshine. Now, my sunshine has been taken away from me.’

Examination of the scene suggested Mr Hewitt, who did not co-operate with the police investigation, had attempted to brake and avoid Christian’s oncoming Astra.

The road was busy at the time but conditions and visibility were said to have been good. There were no direct witnesses.

Neither the Astra nor the off-road bike were roadworthy, but the crash investigation found that no defects to either vehicle contributed to the collision.

Christian was initially arrested on suspicion of attempted murder, but further enquiries led to him being charged with causing death by careless driving, an allegation he admitted at a plea hearing.

He claimed he ran away in ‘panic’ as the crash forced him to relive a 2013 incident in which he was a backseat passenger in a car and was thrown through the windscreen.

Passing sentence, Judge David Aubrey, QC, said Patrick was a ‘much-loved child’ and ‘his mother’s golden boy and her sunshine’.

He added: ‘All that came to an end when you took away his mother’s sunshine on April 20, 2020, or shortly after when the decision had to be made to end ventilation whilst he was in hospital and after he had remained lifeless.

‘He had suffered multiple, catastrophic injuries and was in intensive care for two days before he died.

‘His mother has seen him lifeless on the pavement and thereafter in a hospital bed.

‘In her moving victim personal statement she described the devastation, the heartbreak and loss that his death has caused. Her suffering, and indeed the suffering of others, is your responsibility.’

As well as his jail term, Christian, from Huyton, Knowsley, Merseyside, was disqualified from driving for two years beyond his release.

He will have to take an extended re-test before he can get behind the wheel again.

After the case, Merseyside Police’s Detective Chief Inspector Craig Sumner said: ‘This has obviously been a devastating time for the family and friends of Patrick Conway and this incident really affected the community in Huyton.

‘Oliver Christian is now behind bars where he belongs and hopefully today’s court result will give Patrick’s family some closure and hopefully help them to move on with their lives.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Source: Read Full Article