A remorseless driver laughed and joked after killing an unborn baby and seriously injuring the mother by running her over at double the speed limit.
Ashir Shahid, 20, was estimated to be driving up to 71mph in wet and dark conditions when he hit pregnant care worker Renju Joseph on Station Road in Bamber Bridge on September 29. He and his passenger, a 17-year-old who cannot be named due to his age, fled the scene and attempted a cover up while laughing and joking in a bid to avoid being held to account for the crash. Songs were later recorded boasting about the killing.
Ms Joseph was 24 weeks pregnant at the time and was walking to a night shift at a nearby care home with two colleagues at the time of the collision. As seen in CCTV footage, she crossed over when the green light indicated it was safe to do so and was slightly behind her colleagues when Shahid’s Toyota Prius Plus sped through and ran her down at 7.50pm.
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Prosecuting, Emma Kehoe told Preston Crown Court that as they fled, the victim was left lying on the floor. She said: “As Ms Joseph lay on the floor, the ambulance and police were contacted and was rushed to the hospital in Preston where she was treated for head and spinal injuries. It also became clear the life of her unborn child was in grave danger.”
An emergency Caesarean section took place, with Ms Joseph having already suffered a ruptured placenta and heavy blood loss. The baby, a boy names Olive, survived just a few hours before he was pronounced dead at 6am the following morning.
Video footage played to the court from earlier in the journey, which was recorded on the passenger’s phone, showed the car being driven through Preston at speeds between 55 and 70 mph on roads with either 20mph and 30mph limit.
At one stage, the car is driven through a red traffic light onto a main road, veering across the lanes with Shahid laughing, telling other cars to “f*ck off*” and often having one or no hands on the wheel.
Screenshots of another clip taken from Shahid’s Snapchat, recorded by himself, show him with one of hands on the wheel, the car’s odometer reading 70mph and the teenager sitting on the window ledge of the passenger door with his entire upper body outside.
Ms Kehoe said: “It is clear that throughout the footage the vehicle is being driven at similar speeds. What is evident in the footage is how wet the road is, how many other vehicles are present and that pedestrians are present as well.”
Audio from cameras in multiple locations captured the loud impact when Ms Joseph was struck. Ms Kehoe summed up the statement of another driver who was driving in the opposite direction when the crash occurred. He said he chose to drive through Bamber Bridge as it felt safer to that rather than use the bypass at high speed in the wet conditions. He was waiting at the crossing on the other side of the road when the crash occurred.
He said: “I saw three women approaching the crossing so I slowed down. The three women then began to cross. I also noticed the third female was pregnant and crossing slightly behind the other two.
“The driver seemed to increase his speed when he was about 15m away. The rain was light and the beacons on the zebra crossing were lit.
“When the driver noticed the women on the crossing, the vehicle veered away from the two women and hit the pregnant lady. The other two had to jump to avoid being hit.”
The witness recalled seeing Ms Joseph being “thrown into the air” and landing with a loud bang. He said she landed on the road and then tumbled and rolled into his car with enough speed for the impact to be felt inside the car.
He saw the car speed away and said he has since struggled to sleep as he recalls the terror in the eyes of Ms Joseph while the awaited emergency responders.
Cover up
Further footage showed the car continuing to drive at high speeds afterwards, then stopping on Rushy Hey, Lostock Hall, where both men got out of the vehicle.
Here, less than 10 minutes after the crash, the passenger removed the registration plate while Shahid ran into a property on Greenfield Drive while removing his top. His passenger followed him inside carrying the registration plate as the pair quickly began their attempted cover up which also involved draping a sheet over the damaged windscreen.
In the immediate aftermath, Shahid used his phone to search ‘hit and run human’ and ‘rescue car’ along with a flurry of calls.
Within two hours of the crash, the Toyota was removed on a recovery truck and the teenager had returned home having breached the curfew for which he was wearing an ankle tag from a previous conviction for robbery.
Meanwhile, Shahid had been collected by a friend and remained not only unapologetic but joyful and he laughed and joked about what had happened. In one clip recovered from a phone, a friend can be heard to say ‘I’m basically with a murderer’.
The pair then entered Frankie’s Chicken and Pizza takeaway in Farnworth and continued laughing and joking. At one point after they notice the CCTV camera, the man with Shahid can be heard telling the member of staff ‘if anyone asks for this footage don’t give it to them, this is a killer’.
Later on, the pair continue laughing as they search for and read news articles about the crash, including reference to the woman being seriously injured. Another Snapchat clip included the killer driving while laughing as he sang along to ‘It Wasn’t Me’.
Shahid was then taken to stay with a friend in Accrington for a couple of nights before being moved to another associate’s home in Kirkham on October 2. He was arrested here at 9pm on this day and the following day the car was recovered by Greater Manchester Police on Gladwys Street, the same road where the takeaway is located.
The passenger had been taken to stay with a friend in Clayton Brook by a friend who said he didn’t care if police arrived. He was arrested on September 30, one day after the crash. Both refused to answer any questions during their police interviews.
According to Ms Kehoe, a further four people have since been charged with assisting an offender in relation to this case and are due in court in the coming weeks.
Audio recordings
In December, a search of Shahid’s phone uncovered a series of audio files containing rap songs referencing the incident. Among an array of sickening lyrics are references to sleeping with a woman described as “ragging her about like the Prius bus” that hit the woman and expressions of desire to run somebody over again.
Another line says ‘don’t get pregnant, Ash will run that b*tch over’ while a third excerpt declares, “I want to run someone over. I want some mum to cry thinking about their son’.
There were also references to bail dates and refusing to confess as well as a rape threat against someone and a threat to ‘rob’ the judge outside the court. Another song referenced the first name of one of the other four people charged in connection with this case and another referenced the date of the passenger’s robbery conviction.
Ms Kehoe argued that the contents of the raps contained information which made it clear that they were recorded by two defendants. Both, however, denied this but said they were unable to say who had recorded them. Jonathan Duffy, on behalf of Shahid, said he had heard it on social media and recorded the audio from someone else’s phone.
Defending the passenger, Jennifer Devans-Tamakloe maintained he did not know who recorded the songs. She said he could not explain why one of the clips referenced him being in the room.
A further clip was then played to the court in which one voice said: “Her windows got busted up like the woman we killed, yeah we killed. Ashy in the drive, me in the passie.
“We were driving about a oner, both phones in our hands and we were recording. Delete them videos. We was high, we was high, yeah, we was high, we didn’t even stop.”
Another said: “Baby got packed. She still hasn’t woken up, she’s still asleep. I’m out dealing weed, still selling drugs and doing burglaries.”
After those clips were played, the passenger accepted he was actually responsible for the recordings.
Sentencing
Shahid, of Windsor Road, Walton-le-Dale, previously pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving at a hearing in June. On the same day, the passenger, Walton-le-Dale, pleaded guilty to assisting an offender.
Ms Kehoe said that while Shahid has no previous convictions, the passenger has six convictions for 13 offences dating back to 2013. These included burglaries and car thefts.
Judge Ian Unsworth KC will hand down sentences on Friday morning after the defences have offered their mitigation.
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