A Belfast Crown Court jury yesterday found a "proverbial boy racer" guilty of causing death by dangerous driving. The jury of 10 men and two women deliberated for almost four hours before coming to their majority verdict. As the verdict was read out, the defendant, Maurice Parke, looked at the floor, and the mother of the man who died in the tragedy silently wept. Her son, Christopher Russell (22), had been the front-seat passenger when Parke crashed his car after a police chase down Scrabo Road, Newtownards, in the early hours of September 18th, 1999.
The group of five friends were on their way home from a Newtownards bar when Parke lost control of his Volkswagen Scirocco on a right-hand bend near Killylather forest and the car ended up on its roof.
Parke (21) from Dunsy Way, Comber, had claimed that the reason he did not stop was that he thought the chasing police car was full of "undesirables" who wanted to do him harm.
In her closing speech to the jury, Ms Donna McColgon, prosecuting, described this as "complete nonsense and invention concocted months after the event".
Police decided to follow Parke after he pulled away from them at high speed while still in a 30 m.p.h. zone. Before this, two officers who were on observation duties in Newtownards town centre had seen Parke driving through the town at high speed and he appeared to be "shouting abuse" at pedestrians.
According to police witnesses Parke's car was seen to "swerve out wide" on the Scrabo Road to take the corners at speed and the back end of his car seemed to skip out at the corners.
Two of the back-seat passengers had told the court they could remember being pushed from side to side as the car rounded the bends in the high-speed chase. Police lost sight of the car but came on the scene of the accident moments after the car had stopped.
They saw Parke jump over a nearby fence and run through the field. When he returned a few minutes later, officers noted that he was unsteady on his feet and they could smell alcohol on his breath. However, a blood sample found that Parke was marginally under the drink-drive limit.
While giving evidence on his own behalf, Parke supported his claims by describing to the jury a catalogue of "hassle" which he and his family had suffered over the years. "All I saw was a car coming up from behind us really fast so I thought it was related to the events in Comber. That is why I was so scared," he said.
Parke has been remanded in custody and will be dealt with after pre-sentence reports have been prepared.