A seven-year-old boy who was left home alone in a dark house with no electricity or gas while his mum visited her lover was killed by a speeding drug driver after going outside.
Taxi driver Mohsin Hussain, 32, who mowed down and killed Malakye Hall while driving on the wrong side of the road, has been jailed Friday for nine years and nine months after admitting causing death by dangerous driving.
The driver was under influence
Hussain, of Carlisle Street in Bradford, was under the influence of cannabis when he hit the child on Manchester Road in Bradford.
Bradford Crown Court heard how seven-year-old Malakye had been left alone by his mother and had managed to get out of the locked house when he was hit just after 10pm on August 11, 2020.
Malakye’s mum Wendy Hall was jailed in August 2021 for three years for leaving her young son home alone with no electricity or gas on the night of his death.
How the incident happened
YorkshireLive reported at the time that Hall had left her mobile phone with Malakye for him to play on while she was away, but it appeared that he got out of the house shortly after she left.
When a police officer came across the scene of the fatal collision, the damaged phone was found in the boy’s possession and inquiries led them to the house which was in darkness with the door open.
Hall was subsequently traced to her partner’s home.
How the driver was prosecuted
On Thursday, Prosecutor Abigail Langford played dashcam footage to the court showing Hussain’s journey to Manchester Road from his home.
She said he was not working at the time and had failed to renew his licence as a taxi driver with Bradford City Council.
She said: ‘An animated map shows him travelling in the direction of Prince’s Way at speeds far in excess of the 30mph limit… He travelled at speeds and onto a ring road onto Jacobs Well roundabout, through a red light…You will see while travelling he engages in an undertaking manoeuvre.’
He was pronounced dead
The court heard that following the collision Hussain stayed at the scene and occupants from another vehicle, members of the public and police officers attempted to help Malakye who was taken to Bradford Royal Infirmary where it was found he had suffered extensive head injuries.
He was pronounced dead at the hospital.