M25 fatal crash: family pay tribute to passenger Fahad Dek
Fahad Dek, 23, from Enfield, was a passenger in a stolen van being driven by violent criminal Barancan Nurcin.
When police tried to intercept the stolen van, Nurcin began driving the wrong way up the M25, causing a multi-car pile-up.
The incident killed two people, including Mr Dek and 39-year-old Zoe Hawes, a mother from Canvey[1].
Nurcin fled the scene, leaving his mortally wounded passenger behind.
He then claimed Mr Dek had been the primary driver of the stolen van – which Mr Justice Murray rejected.
He said there was no evidence Mr Dek had contributed in any way to Nurcin’s deadly decisions that night.[2]
Mr Dek’s death “has turned my life upside down,” his mother wrote in a statement, read by prosecutor Mark Fenhalls KC.
“Every morning I wake up thinking he’s in the house and he’s about to kiss me.”
When police told her that her son was dead, she said: “Those words were like a knife in my heart and I was in utter disbelief.”
Mr Dek’s uncle also wrote a statement, saying his death had “left a void that can never be filled”.
“His infectious smile and remarkable character brought joy to our lives,” he wrote.
“I find myself overwhelmed with grief.”
He said the family suffered “sleepless nights when his absence weighs heavily on our minds.”
He was a man who “held no grudges and had a clean soul.”
Mr Dek’s mother wrote: “He was so young and had such a promising future.”
She said he was “cherished by his loved ones and his community”.
Mr Fenhalls said police had been unable to determine what Nurcin and Mr Dek had been doing in the van.
They had driven to Northampton in the middle of the night, which the prosecutor said “can only raise the inference that they were involved in committing serious crime”.
But both men’s phones were “damaged beyond repair” in the collision.
Mr Justice Murray found there was insufficient evidence to conclude they had been engaged in criminality, although he found their actions that might “bizarre” and “suspicious”.
References
- ^ 39-year-old Zoe Hawes, a mother from Canvey (www.echo-news.co.uk)
- ^ Nurcin’s deadly decisions that night. (www.echo-news.co.uk)