Mother of boy killed on moped: No jail term will bring him back

Daniel Webb: The mother of the teenage moped rider killed by a minicab has spoken about the driver's sentence
Daniel O'Mahony11 September 2017
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The mother of a teenage moped rider knocked down and killed by a minicab in front of his brother today said no length of jail sentence would bring her son back.

Daniel Webb, 18, died after driver Joseph Hurry pulled out in his Toyota Auris cab and crashed into the scooter on a country road in Hayes, Bromley.

Paramedics tried to save Daniel, a former pupil at Charles Darwin School, but he was pronounced dead at the scene at 4.30pm on December 5 last year.

His death, three weeks before his 19th birthday, came less than a month after his friend Dane Chinnery, 19, died in the Croydon tram crash.

Hurry, 62, broke down in tears after pleading guilty to causing death by careless driving at the Old Bailey last week. He will be sentenced on November 2.

Victim: Dane Chinnery, 19, a close friend of Daniel's, died in the Croydon tram crash

At her home less than a mile from the tributes that still adorn the crash site, Daniel’s mother Jakki Webb said she had “just wanted a guilty plea” from Hurry.

She said: “The length of the sentence actually doesn’t matter. It’s not going to change anything, it’s not going to bring Daniel back. He’s probably got grandkids, and he’s got to live with it for the rest of his life.”

On the day of his death Daniel had been riding home with his brother Adam, then 16, and friends after buying a video game in Bromley town centre.

His mother, 44, said of the court case: “I’m glad [Hurry] turned around and pleaded guilty, because he would have dragged Adam through the courts.

“Adam saw his brother die, and he would have had to stand up at the Old Bailey and say what happened. What he went through, he’s got to live with that for the rest of his life.”

She also praised her son’s “amazing” family and friends, who are planning to abseil from the Royal London Hospital to raise money for the London Air Ambulance — a repeat of a charity feat Daniel completed in 2015.

Ms Webb said: “There’s good days and bad days. It’s always going to be like that. I think the hardest bit for me is when people ask his age, because he was nothing. He was a kid.”

The court heard that Hurry, from Croydon, suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after the crash and will be assessed by a psychiatrist before being sentenced.

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