Serial drunk driver who ran over and killed boy tying his shoelaces gave cops boss’ name
This is the moment a serial drink driver was arrested after running over[1] and killing a “bright and funny” five-year-old boy. Darren Jacques, 42, was serving his fourth disqualification from the roads when he caused the death of little Layton Darwood. A court heard Jacques attempted to hide his role in the incident by giving his boss’ name to police.
But footage, released by police today, shows the moment he admitted giving officers the wrong name. In it, he says he “just panicked” when he had been detained at the scene of the tragedy near Fenham, Newcastle on August 24, 2020.
Ibiza crash: British man, 36, dies ‘after car smashes head-on into a dustbin lorry’[2]
Darren Jacques places his head in his hands after being arrested for causing Layton Darwood’s death (The Chronicle)
Layton had been with three other children who had gone to a shop to buy sweets and supplies for a picnic, after the eldest of the group had been given a bank card. CCTV footage showed how Jacques parked his Ford Transit Tipper on a kerb before dashing into a shop and grabbing a bottle of Stella Artois.
He then was seen exiting the shop and jogging past Layton and the other children as he went back to his van. But while Jacques’ vehicle was stationary, Layton climbed on to the trailer. As Jacques began to move away, the young boy fell to the ground and the wheels of the trailer rolled over him, causing fatal injuries.
The trial had heard Layton may have got his shoelaces caught before falling under the wheels. His killer has convictions for three drink driving disqualifications, taking a vehicle without consent and he has now been banned from the roads for the fifth time. He was also sentenced to six years imprisonment at Newcastle Crown Court today, having been convicted in September of causing the boy’s death[3].
Footage of the banned driver talking to the police after the tragedy has been released (The Chronicle)
The banned driver had been illegally at the wheel of a work flatbed truck towing a trailer with a digger on board and parked it on the pavement outside the shop.
The court heard he has 54 convictions on his record. The video shows Jacques tell officers: “I didn’t mean to give you the runaround”. He places his head in his hands as he is arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury – before he is later rearrested after Layton passed away.
The defendant, of Penrith, Cumbria, was not only banned from the roads at the time but was also not qualified to drive the works vehicle he was using that day, and had no insurance. Sentencing the construction worker, Judge Robert Adams said: “You have demonstrated a lax attitude to disqualified driving and you aggravated things further by giving false details to the police.”
The construction worker, of Penrith, Cumbria, will spend six years in jail
Layton was excited to go ‘on his first adventure’ but died that same day
Layton’s mother Stephany Richardson gave harrowing evidence of arriving at the scene to find paramedics trying in vain to save her little boy by massaging his heart at the roadside. “The impact this has had can never be measured.
You took my bright, funny, full of life little boy and you also stole the innocence of three young girls and destroyed a family,” the mum, of Fenham, Newcastle, said. “On that day, Layton was excited to be going on his first adventure. Getting cake and sweets was his favourite thing to do, but little did I realise this would be his last adventure.
I had to witness the most horrific scene of emergency workers massaging his heart at the roadside. “And while this was happening you were lying, trying to cover your tracks, giving false information and false names. Not once did you ask how my son was during that time.
I could talk all day about how wonderful my little boy was but you don’t deserve to know anything about him.
“No justice will be served today in my eyes because I am facing a lifetime without him while trying to hold together a family that you broke.”
References
- ^ running over (www.mirror.co.uk)
- ^ Ibiza crash: British man, 36, dies ‘after car smashes head-on into a dustbin lorry’ (www.mirror.co.uk)
- ^ having been convicted in September of causing the boy’s death (www.mirror.co.uk)