This is the horrific moment a dangerous driver killed two teenagers and left two others with life-changing injuries when he was ‘showed off’ his heavily modified vehicle at a car competition.
Dhiya Al Maamoury, 56, lost control of his Nissan Skyline and crashed into a group of friends standing on the sidewalk, killing Ben Corfield, 19, and friend Liberty Charris, 16, and seriously injuring two others.
The shocking footage shows Al Maamoury weaving along Oldbury Road in Oldbury, West Midlands, where he lost control of his vehicle and crashed into the group of youths.
Ms Charris and Mr Corfield were pronounced dead at the scene in November 2022.
Al Maamoury was today sentenced at Wolverhampton Crown Court to 13 and a half years in prison following the deaths of the two young people.
The shocking moment the dangerous driver, Dhiya Al Maamoury, lost control of the vehicle and drove into a crowd, killing two teenagers
Liberty Charris, 16, (left) and her boyfriend Ben Corfield. 19 (right) died after being hit by the car and were pronounced dead at the scene in November 2022
Dhiya Al Maamoury, 56, (pictured) has been jailed for 13 and a half years after he crashed his car into a group of friends while ‘showing off’ at a car rally, killing the two teenagers.
After the sentencing, Ben’s grieving father said street racing and car competitions were a “scourge on the earth” and he hoped the sentence would be a lesson to those who take part.
A court heard that in 2022 there were regular car rallies in the area – organized by social media for the purpose of displaying or racing vehicles – which attracted large crowds.
The court heard Al Maamoury was revving his car, which had been modified to increase power, on a side street before veering onto a dual carriageway and losing control.
Judge Michael Chambers QC sentenced Al Maamoury, telling him the dangers of such behavior were ‘clear and should have been clear to you’.
Speaking alongside his wife Lynette, and with a pin of his son’s face on the lapel of his suit, Mr Corfield said afterwards: ‘We’ve all seen advertisements for these types of car competitions.
‘They pose a danger to all road users and appear to have made progress over the last 12 to 18 months.
‘The incident where Ben died in Oldbury, there is now an injunction in place there and West Midlands Police are certainly taking a strong stance on that to stamp out the practice.
‘You should be able to get that safety as a pedestrian and we applaud the work that West Midlands Police is doing.’
While Mr Corfield said the sentencing “has not provided any closure for us as a family”, he said he believed the judge had set a precedent with his sentence.
Police cordoned off the scene when the two teens were murdered in November 2022 (pictured)
The location where the car climbed the sidewalk before hitting the wall on Oldbury Road (photo)
He said, ‘Ben is gone, we have lost our son, the light of our lives. Nothing can take away that pain, and it is the most excruciating, heartbreaking pain, every second of every day.
‘(The verdict) was much higher than what we, four families, expected, and this should be a warning to everyone involved in this type of action that it will not be tolerated.
“This man showed no remorse.”
Prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC told the court that the car, which had been imported from Japan about 18 months before the collision, had been modified so that the exhaust spit fire and a turbocharged engine had been fitted.
She said Al Maamoury had been driving at speeds between 90 and 90 km/h on the 60 km/h stretch of road and had been ‘fishing’ before completely losing control before crashing into the group on the pavement collided.
Ms Heeley said: ‘He denied in an interview that he was showing off. The prosecutor points to the material on social media to show that this is exactly what he did.”
Liberty’s mother Tracy Charris cried as she paid tribute to her “larger than life” daughter, who was a “force to be reckoned with”.
She said: ‘I’ve always wanted a little girl and from the moment she was born it was her and me against the world. I would have died for her.
‘She was so smart and bubbly, she loved everything and everyone. Her absence is deafening.”
On the day he was due to stand trial in September, Al Maamoury admitted two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Balbir Singh, defending, said Al Maamoury and his family had been driven out of Iraq because of the Gulf War and said he had a “positive, good character” who “worked hard, raised his family and moved to this country where he has lived’. continued to work hard’.
Judge Chambers also banned Al Maamoury from driving for 14 years.
The judge told him: ‘You deliberately carried out a very dangerous maneuver to attract public attention, by accelerating hard in a Nissan that you had deliberately modified to increase power.
Tributes were paid at the scene of the collision to Liberty, 16, and Ben, 19. Their families made public statements in November 2022
‘You clearly did that in close proximity to a crowd of onlookers standing along the road, including in this case the four victims.
“As a result, you lost control of your car, with catastrophic consequences.”
Outside court, Mr Corfield described his son as a ‘miracle’ who completed their family.
About the fatal collision in November 2022, he said: “Al Maamoury took our lives. We cannot process the pain and devastation as father, mother and sister. We wake up and shout for him.
“Al Maamoury has received his sentence, but we have a life sentence and we have to deal with that now, while we have left.”