Farmer cleared of manslaughter over death of three-year-old son

A farmer has been cleared of the manslaughter of his three-year-old son.

Albie Speakman suffered catastrophic injuries after Neil Speakman, 39, reversed a telehandler vehicle into him in Bury, Greater Manchester, on July 16 2022.

The collision happened in a yard next to a small garden area at the front of the farmhouse in Bentley Hall Road, Walshaw, where the defendant had left Albie to play.

The prosecution at Manchester Minshull Street said the area was insecure so Albie was free to wander into the yard where his father was working, and argued that the Kramer telehandler had various defects.

Speakman told the jury he “checked profusely” for blind spots and did not see his son.

He said: “I looked over both shoulders a number of times, I have gone fully round, 180 degrees.

“If I thought Albie was even an inch into that yard I would never have moved that vehicle. If I thought for one second he was not on that grass I would not even have moved that stupid thing.”

He added: “It was a tragic accident. I made a mistake.”

Speakman had pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act in failing to ensure, so far as reasonably practical, the health and safety of Albie.

Jurors were told that to find he had acted with gross negligence they needed to be sure the circumstances of the breach were “truly exceptionally bad”.

Speakman will be sentenced at a later date for the health and safety offence.