A dangerous driver who was “showing off” his heavily modified vehicle at a car competition when he killed two teenagers and seriously injured two others has been sentenced to 13 and a half years.

Dhiya Al Maamoury, 56, lost control of her blue and white Nissan Skyline, in which her two adult children were travelling, and struck a group of pedestrians who were gathered on the pavement at the side of the A457 Oldbury Road in Oldbury, near Birmingham. , around 11:30 p.m. on November 20, 2022.

The collision killed Liberty Charris, 16, and Ben Corfield, 19, and seriously injured Ethan Kilburn, 21, and Ebonie Parkes, who was 20 at the time.

Relatives of the victims sobbed in the public gallery at Wolverhampton Crown Court on Friday as the extensive list of injuries they suffered were read out.

Despite the efforts of police officers, who arrived moments after the collision, and paramedics, both Liberty and Ben died at the scene.

Prosecutor Michelle Heeley KC told the court the car, which had been imported from Japan about 18 months before the collision, had been modified so that the exhaust spewed fire and had a turbo engine.

She said Al Maamoury had been driving at speeds of between 54 and 97 mph on the 40 mph stretch of road and was “spinning” before completely losing control and crashing into the group on the pavement.

She said: “The cause of this collision was not that I was driving too fast, although I was clearly speeding. Other vehicles were traveling at higher speeds along this same stretch.

“What caused this was that the defendant accelerated excessively, when starting the rear of his car he lost traction with the road and then began to head towards the median. He tried to overcorrect and completely lost control.

“I was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs. What he did was walk around and show off, driving dangerously in an area full of pedestrians.”

Arrested at the scene, Al Maamoury claimed that he had taken his children to the competition because they liked to photograph cars and denied speeding, saying that the car went onto the sidewalk “on its own” and that he was simply driving. on the way home and had made a U-Turn at the roundabout.

Mr Heeley said Snapchat and CCTV footage proved this was not true, adding: “He had been on a side road, pressing the accelerator before joining the motorway.

“He denied in the interview that he was boasting. “The prosecution points to social media material to show that that is exactly what he was doing.”

Fighting back tears, Damian Corfield, Ben’s father, told the court how his life ended the night Al Maamoury killed his son.

He said: “He was knocked down on the pavement where he should have been safe. He didn’t come home. He will never come home.

“The son we had waited for so long is gone forever. They took away the reason I lived. The son he appreciated and loved so much is gone.

“My son, my best friend, my business partner and confidant. All I do is count the days until I can be with him again.”

Liberty’s mother, Tracy Charris, cried as she paid tribute to her “larger than life” daughter, who was a “force to be reckoned with.”

She said: “I always wanted a girl and from the moment she was born, it was me and her against the world. I would have died for her.

“He was so bright and cheerful and loved everything and everyone. “His absence is deafening.”

And she added: “I am so full of hate that it consumes me. “I am truly devastated by the loss of my freedom and it is too much to bear.”

Al Maamoury looked into the distance in the dock as he listened to the tributes through an Arabic interpreter.

After initially pleading not guilty in March to two counts of causing death by dangerous driving and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving, Al Maamoury changed his plea and admitted guilt on the day he was due to face trial in September.

He appeared in the dock on Friday wearing a gray suit and shirt and carrying two plastic bags.

Balbir Singh, defending Al Maamoury, said the consequences of what happened that night “were not intended, intended or foreseen.”

He said Al Maamoury and his family had been displaced from Iraq due to the Gulf War and said he was a “positive and good-natured” person who “worked hard, raised his family and moved to this country where he continued to work.” hard”. ”.

He said: “He is full of regret and remorse for what happened. Custody will weigh heavily on him and his loved ones.”

Judge Michael Chambers KC said Al Maamoury’s vehicle was “powerful, loud, loud and aggressive” and jailed him for 13 years and six months on one count of causing death by dangerous driving, with a sentence of 13 and a half years. for the second charge of causing death by dangerous driving and a 32-month sentence for each charge of causing serious injury by dangerous driving to run concurrently.

He was also banned from driving for 14 years to take into account his prison sentence, of which he will likely serve two-thirds.

Judge Chambers said: “You deliberately carried out a very dangerous maneuver to show off to the crowd, accelerating hard in a Nissan which you had deliberately modified to increase its power.

“He did so very close to a crowd of onlookers who had lined the street and included the four victims in this case.

“As a result you lost control of your car with catastrophic results. Burying a child is a parent’s worst nightmare.

“No sentence I may impose can turn back the clock, nor should it be seen as an attempt to put a value on the loss of life.

“In 2022, car meetings were organized regularly through social networks to show off or compete. These events attract a large number of people, especially young people.

“In that context, it is obvious that the police were concerned about the risk to the public.

“The dangers were obvious and should have been for you.”