A 17-year-old rapped ‘ran that b**** over, baby got packed’ after a car he was in mowed down a five months pregnant student and killed her baby boy.
Renju Joseph, 31, was hit by a speeding car as she walked on a zebra crossing in the village of Bamber Bridge, near Preston, Lancashire.
Ashir Shahid, 20, was driving the Toyota Prius between 58mph and 71mph despite being in a 30mph zone in dark, wet conditions, Preston Crown Court.
He was jailed for 13 years alongside the car’s front passenger, his 17-year-old brother Sam Shahid, who was detained for three years after he pleaded guilty to assisting an offender.
The care home worker was en route to a night shift with two female colleagues last September 29 when she was ‘thrown into the air for some quite some distance’ in the crash, a witness said.
Sign up for all of the latest stories
Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates newsletter or get Breaking News alerts the moment it happens.
The expectant mum was taken to hospital after the crash where doctors tried to save the life of her son, Olive, with an emergency c-section.
She spent a fortnight in a coma before she learned of her son’s death about five hours after delivery, the court heard.
She and her nurse husband, Nyjil Jonn, had planned a gender reveal party at a baby shower for family and friends just three days after the crash.
A motorist travelling in the opposite direction said the Prius driver appeared to increase speed about 15 metres away from the crossing and then swerved from the two pedestrians in front.
Prosecutors said Shahid’s driving ‘left a lot to be desired’.
Video clips recovered from the driver and passenger’s mobile phones show them laughing and singing as the car moves erratically.
Sam Shahid was also seen putting his feet and upper body out of the window while his older brother removed both hands from the wheel at times and makes gun gestures.
(Picture: Lancashire Constabulary/PA Wire)
Minutes after the collision the Toyota was abandoned in a side street and covered with a sheet by the brothers.
Others then moved the vehicle onto the back of a flatbed truck and dumped it in Farnworth, Greater Manchester.
Ashir Shahid was arrested days later, with his phone revealing he had searched ‘charge for hit and run human’ on the night of the collision.
A video clip on his Snapchat account also showed him singing along to the Shaggy song It Wasn’t Me and laughing.
Ashir Shahid of Windsor Road, Walton le Dale, Preston, pleaded guilty in June to causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving.
On Friday, he was banned from driving for 15 years and one month and must pass an extended retest to get back behind the wheel.
Sam Shahid, pleaded guilty to assisting an offender.
Sentencing, Judge Ian Unsworth KC said Ashir Shahid’s acceleration in the moments before the crash was ‘akin to what you may see on a Formula 1 race track’.
He said: ‘Your driving was nothing less than appalling. You engaged in a prolonged and persistent course of dangerous driving.
‘Your speed was significantly in excess of the speed limit and was highly inappropriate for the prevailing road conditions.
‘Olive’s life lasted five hours and 38 minutes. He did not live to see dawn. His mother never saw him alive.
‘His life was snubbed out before it really began.’
Mrs Joseph said in a victim statement that ‘everything has been ruined by that one night’.
She added: ‘My life will never by the same again.
‘I will never get to meet my baby, be a mummy to him or watch him grow up. They have taken my first child away from me and I will never get him back.’
She suffered life-changing injuries including a bleed to the brain, a cracked spinal cord and fractures to her pelvis, ribs and leg.
She has had to learn to walk again and struggles to stand for long periods of time, the court heard.
(Picture: Lancashire Constabulary/PA Wire)
Jonathan Duffy, defending Ashir Shahid, who has no previous convictions, said: ‘Of course he knew that he had struck a pedestrian but didn’t know at the time how seriously injured Mrs Joseph was.
‘He deeply regrets his behaviour immediately after the offence, All he can say is that he panicked and was in shock.’
Shahid had expressed feelings of shame, guilt and remorse in a letter to the court, he said.
Jennifer Devans-Tamakloe, defending Sam Shahid, said he told her that rapping about something as serious as these events ‘makes it easier for him to cope with, as odd as that sounds’.
She said: ‘While Sam clearly has difficulties of his own, he has ambitions. He says he wants to join the Army.’
Sam Shahid had six prior convictions for 13 offences including burglary and vehicle theft, the court was told.
Judge Unsworth told the defendants: ‘You seemingly have no moral compass. Throughout these proceedings you have sat with your heads down as if in shame. You have no shame.’
He described how they both ‘disappeared into the night like cowards’ following the collision and then shortly after acted with ‘breathtaking coolness’ as they began a cover-up operation.
He told them they had ‘not shown a care in the world for anyone and anything around you’ as they careered through residential streets at dangerously high speeds.
Judge Unsworth said: ‘Your arrogant, selfish and shameless actions put multiple people at risk including yourselves.
‘Neither of you have a shred of remorse for your involvement that evening.’
He told Sam Shahid: ‘You sang utterly vile rap songs in which you glorified the events of that evening and speak in utterly despicable ways of Renju and her dead son Olive. It defies belief.
‘You have an ingrained criminality and are someone who at the age of 17 seems to revel in and take pleasure from it.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
