‘Showboating’ motorcyclist’s friend had ‘weird feeling’ he was being followed before fatal collision

The friend of a motorcyclist killed in a collision with a car has said he had a “weird feeling” they were being followed moments before the fatal crash. Liam Jones is alleged to have been deliberately hit by Abdirahman Ibrahim’s SEAT Leon on Moat Lane, Yardley, shortly before midnight on August 1 last year.

The 19-year-old is on trial at Birmingham Crown Court, where he denies the charge of murder. Ibrahim, now 20, of Bonham Grove, Yardley, admitted manslaughter, accepting he unlawfully killed Mr Jones, 22. But his lawyer said the fatal incident resulted from pairs racing that “went very wrong”.

Today, Thursday, May 16, a statement from the victim’s friend, Tayzhon Johnson, was read to the jury. Aged 18 at the time of the incident, he said he was at his girlfriend’s house on the evening in question when Mr Jones rang him at 7.50pm to ask if they wanted to go out on the e-bikes together.

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Mr Johnson said they went to the Bullring in Birmingham city center before suggesting they return home at around 11.30pm because the batteries on their £2,000 Sur-Ron bikes were running low. He said he was wearing a hood, while Mr Jones had a balaclava mask which he usually wore.

Mr Johnson recalled being outside the Grillz restaurant on Coventry Road when he first spotted the white SEAT Leon. He said the windows were tinted black, but he thought the car looked “pretty full” and noticed one of the front lights wasn’t working.

Mr Johnson said he and Mr Jones turned left onto Coventry Road at the Swan Shopping Center roundabout before deciding to take the second exit onto the one-way Harvey Road onto the next island. He said: “I started accelerating at just over 25mph.

“I told Liam we should go the wrong way down the one way road as we had a strange feeling. We felt that the Leon car was following us. If there was someone in the car I knew they would have flashed their lights or honked their horn, but it didn’t agree with me and we both went down the one way road the wrong way.

The jury was previously told the Lion continued along the adjacent Yew Tree Lane. Mr Johnson stated at the end of Harvey Road that he and Mr Jones continued straight towards Moat Lane, remembering seeing the Leon approaching from the left.

He said: “I was going so fast on Harvey Road the car shouldn’t have been there. He shouldn’t have gotten there so quickly.”

Mr Johnson said as they drove down Moat Lane he heard the Leon’s engine “sounding like the foot had been pushed down on the pedal”, adding “it was very close to us, a bed’s length away”. . He said he told Mr Jones to get on the path and when his friend turned to look over his shoulder, the Leon was “right behind him”.

Mr Johnson continued: “The car then hit Liam. There was a loud bang. The car swept him, picked him up from the floor. There was no other traffic on the road and no one else. I thought the car was coming after me. because of the way he took Liam off the bike.”

He stated that he drove into a grassy area and left the scene and called his girlfriend’s brother for help. Mr Johnson said he later returned to the scene, by which time the police and ambulance were there. He added: “Liam doesn’t really have a problem with anyone, but he doesn’t really talk to me about it.

“I didn’t get in trouble with anybody. I didn’t get in trouble with anybody when I was out that night.”

The jury was previously told that Mr Jones performed wheelies in front of Leon after he had already started chasing him. The prosecution claimed that Ibrahim “was shadowed at the show” and “wanted to teach him a lesson”.

Procedure.