New payout hope for road victim

An Oldham teenager who was only nine when he suffered permanently disabling injuries in a freak road accident has had his hopes of a big compensation payout boosted by a top judge.

Malachi O’Connor was having a kick-about in Clay Lane, Oldham — a quiet cul-de-sac often used for ball games by local children — when the drama unfolded on April 28, 2001.

He was on the opposite side of the road from his friends when he kicked the ball against a wall and took a step into the road where his left ankle was run over by a passing car.

Malachi, now 18, suffered devastating fractures to his calf and ankle joint. He attempted to sue the car’s driver, Colin Stuttard, for up to £50,000 in damages.

However, the teenager had his case dismissed at Oldham County Court last year by Judge Armitage QC, who cleared the motorist of all blame.

The judge said that, although Mr Stuttard was aware of the ball-playing children, he had proceeded carefully at about 5mph, keeping close to the left-hand kerb to give a wide berth to the group of youngsters, when Malachi stepped out into his path.

Mr Stuttard had also said he was convinced Malachi had seen him and that he had regained control of the ball before he took a fateful stride into the road.

Now, however, Malachi’s legal team, headed by barrister, Terence Rigby, is challenging the judge’s ruling at London’s Civil Appeal Court in an attempt to keep the teenager’s compensation hopes alive.

Today, Lord Justice Pitchford rejected arguments that Judge Armitage’s ruling was “perverse” or that he had given insufficient reasons for his decision.

However, granting Malachi permission to appeal, he said it was arguable that Mr Stuttard should have sounded his horn when he saw the children and had driven too close to the kerb.

The teenager’s case will now go ahead to a full Appeal Court hearing on a date which has yet to be fixed.