Driver who killed four-year-old boy in pick-up truck crash cleared of murder

A driver who admitted killing a four-year-old boy in a crash has been cleared of murder after deliberately hitting the family’s car at around 60mph.

Owen Maughan, 27, had pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Peter Maughan on June 1 last year over the crash in New Barn Road, Dartford, Kent.

He had been on trial for murder with his father, Patrick Maughan, 54, who was accused of encouraging and assisting Owen as the front passenger in the car.

The jury at Maidstone Crown Court found Patrick Maughan guilty of manslaughter but was also cleared of murder on Thursday.

Peter was thrown from the family pick-up truck and died of “severe and devastating injuries” to his head, chest and abdomen.

The trial had heard that Owen and Patrick Maughan “chased” the car down the A2 in Kent for several miles.

There was shouting between the two cars before Owen Maughan drove into the wrong lane and clipped the Ford pick-up truck at about 60mph, and the car rolled over multiple times, the court heard.

Peter Maughan was in the back of the car with his one-year-old sister Annarica Mahon, while their mother Hayley, Owen Maughan’s cousin, was in the front passenger seat and her partner Lovell Mahon was driving.

Mr Mahon suffered serious injuries including a skull fracture and is unlikely to walk again.

Owen Maughan had previously admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Mahon.

The jury also found Patrick Maughan guilty of the same charge.

The court had heard that Mr Mahon and Owen Maughan had never met and he did not associate with his cousin Hayley.

Hayley Maughan filmed video clips of the two men following them, leaving a voice note for her mother Erica in which she said she was afraid.

Giving evidence during the trial, Owen Maughan told jurors he did not know there were children in the car.

He said he believed he and Mr Mahon were going to fight after arguing back and forth between the cars, and he decided to dent the side of Mr Mahon’s car so he would stop and get out.

He denied trying to cause serious injury.

After the crash, Owen and Patrick Maughan drove off and paused for Patrick Maughan to pull the registration plate off the truck, which Owen said was done in a state of “panic”.

Jurors heard the pair had been drinking in Rochester earlier that day, and had about 12 bottles of beer and 13 pints respectively, before they began driving their Ford Ranger pick-up truck home.

Owen Maughan told jurors that they spotted a similar vehicle which made them think the drivers may also be from the traveller community, and pulled up alongside.

But he said Mr Mahon was “aggressive and pointing at me” and Maughan got “pretty pissed off with it” so he started “following him just to try and annoy him”.

He said he decided to dent the side of the other car so Mr Mahon would pull in and fight, and “couldn’t believe” what he was seeing when the car flipped over.

Following the verdicts, Kent Police detective inspector Rachel Elmore said: ‘This was a devastating and entirely avoidable tragedy. An innocent young child lost his life, a father has been left unable to walk again, and a mother now faces the unimaginable task of rebuilding her family while carrying her grief.

“Their lives have been irreversibly changed by the deliberate and dangerous actions of these two men. No sentence can ever undo the pain they have caused.”

The pair, both of Hill Rise in Darenth, Kent, will be sentenced at a later date.