Troubled past of friends killed in stolen car crash after chase

FOUR young men died instantly when the stolen car they were travelling in crashed into a takeaway and exploded after racing through red lights and reaching speeds of more than 110mph.

James McClusky, 21, Craig James, 17, Robert Lynn, 16, and Thomas Tilleard, 15, all from Bradford, died when the turbo-charged Subaru Impreza crashed while being chased by police in the early hours of December 11, 2008.

Officers used fire extinguishers in a vain attempt to save those engulfed in the blaze in a chip shop in Killinghall Road in the Laisterdyke area of Bradford.

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The building collapsed in the aftermath of the crash at around 4.35am.

Family statements read out at the inquest at Bradford Magistrates' Court revealed the victims had a history of behavioural problems, petty crime and car theft.

Linda Tilleard, mother of Thomas Tilleard, said the last time she saw her son was hours before the tragedy.

When he came to her house to get something to eat, she said: "Craig and Robert had acted as lookouts while Thomas ate because the police had been looking for him in relation to a previous car theft."

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In a witness statement read out in court, she said she had warned Craig about the dangers of joyriding.

She said: "I spoke to Craig. He told me they had stolen a Subaru car.

"I told him, 'Keep out of the cars, you will get yourselves killed.'

"I had been telling them all that for weeks."

Craig James's mother Kim Rushworth had given her son a similar warning days before the crash.

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She said: "I asked him if he had been stealing cars and he began to brag.

"He bragged about what he was doing and said he had seen a 'buzzing' Subaru, which he was going to steal.

"I told him he was going to get killed.

"He went out the following morning and that was the last time I saw him."

Amanda Manogue, mother of James McClusky, said her son was diagnosed at 14 as suffering from autism. He rarely went to school and caused problems in the classroom if he did, she said.

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She said he became argumentative with members of her family and once, "I gave him a quick wash in bed which he didn't like.

"He cut the mattress up and burnt it in the coal fire.''

She said he had a succession of short-lived jobs and said it was his behaviour towards other people that caused the problems: "He had no social skills.''

The unemployed owner of the Subaru, Selver Mahmatovic, told the inquest he had been watching TV at home at 11pm when he heard the distinctive noise of his motor revving up. He ran outside to try to stop it from being stolen but was too late.

Jodie Moore, who was Craig James's girlfriend, described how she told him and the three others not to steal the Subaru, just hours before the tragedy.

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In a witness statement she said: "I told them to stop being stupid and thinking about stealing cars."

In a statement Dr Elizabeth Lim told the inquest that death in all cases would have been almost instantaneous because of the severity of their injuries, caused by blunt impact.

Pc David Hitchcocks, who was divisional roads policing officer on the night of the accident, told the inquest that the Subaru passed him on the right-hand side of the police vehicle he was driving before it made off at some speed. He said he waited a few seconds to see if another police vehicle was trailing the Subaru, but decided to pursue when none appeared.

He told the court the Subaru increased its speed to around 100mph.

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He said: "We weren't gaining (on the car), I would say we were matching its speed."

Pc Hitchcocks also told of the moment the car hit the chip shop.

When he went to check on the occupants of the car he found the front seat passenger, Thomas Tilleard, slightly out of the car.

The driver, James McClusky, had no pulse, and he could not reach to check on the other two in the back seat.

The hearing continues.

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