A mother found her four-year-old son sprawled on the grass with ‘severe and devastating injuries’ after their car was ‘rammed’ off the road by her cousins.
Hayley Maughan told her mother that she ‘knew they wouldn’t stop’ in voice notes as her cousins pursued her and her family ‘in a fury’ along the A2 in Kent on June 1, last year.
She was in the car with her husband Lovell Mahon, who was driving, and their two children, Peter and one-year-old daughter Annarica.
Maidstone Crown Court heard the family had been heading home from the town’s high street when the two vehicles came together ‘by chance’ at around 9pm.
Hayley’s cousin Owen Maughan, 27, and his father Patrick, 54, as front seat passenger, began tailing the family for several miles down the A2 motorway in their Ford Ranger Wildtrak.
The pair had been drinking in the Jolly Knight pub and City Wall wine bar in Rochester, Kent – where Owen had around 12 bottles of beers and Patrick had roughly 13, the court heard.
Owen and Patrick began pursuing the family, eventually clipping the car at 60mph, causing the vehicle to flip.
Peter was flung from the car and suffered ‘severe and devastating’ injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
He was later pronounced dead at nearby Darent Valley Hospital shortly after 10pm.
Pictured: Hayley Maughan and Lovell Mahon’s children, Peter, and his then one-year-old sister, Annarica Maughan
Although it is not known where the pursuit began, by approximately 9.20pm it was being captured on dashcam by three lorries.
As the father and son hurled abuse towards the family, Owen’s driving became more erratic, the court heard.
Played in court and starting from the A2 junction with Shorne and Cobham, it showed both pickup trucks intermittently braking heavily and pulling up alongside each other as they travelled along the four-lane carriageway.
Hayley filmed some of the pursuit and in numerous voice notes sent to her mother, Erica Maughan, she could be heard telling her ‘Told you they haven’t stopped’.
‘I knew they wouldn’t,’ she continued.
Just two minutes before the fatal crash occurred, she added: ‘He’s still following’.
In one video clip sent to her mother and showing Owen and Patrick’s truck behind them, Hayley remarked: ‘Look, he’s still doing it.’
Erica, in turn, could be heard in her voice messages asking her daughter’s whereabouts and saying ‘drive on’.
Hayley said she initially told her husband when they were on the A2 that she thought the driver of the other vehicle was most likely ‘someone stupid using their phone’.
However, she said she then turned and saw Owen at the wheel.
Although he was her cousin, she added that they did not associate with each other and did not speak.
Owen Maughan, 27, and Patrick Maughan, 54, are accused of the murder of Peter Maughan (pictured), who died on June 1, last year
Recalling her fear as the chase unfolded, she told officers: ‘I started panicking. I could feel my heart racing. I started panicking because I just…I just felt like something was gonna happen.
‘With that he [Owen Maughan] pulled beside us and I started screaming. Lovell said: “drive on, drive, drive on”. I said “please”. I said “just drive on”.
‘I don’t know what speed he was doing but I know it was fast. I said “slow down” and “you’re gonna kill us, slow down”.
‘When we slowed down they came up against us again so I started texting my mum and I started telling her. I don’t remember what I said.’
Hayley could not say in minutes how long the chase lasted but that it seemed like ‘a never-ending road’.
She continued: ‘I was panicking so bad, I was so scared. It’s not normal. I knew they were gonna do something.
‘I said “They’re coming, they’re gonna hit us, they’re gonna hit us. He [Lovell] looked at me and said “I’m scared”. I said “I’m scared too”.’
Having realised Owen’s father was also in the truck, Hayley said: ‘His face was really, really, really red. It was like a volcano, just like ready to explode.
‘I said “They’ve got us, they’ve got us, they’ll hit us”. As I’ve said that, they hit us in the back.’
Patrick Maughan, 54, is pictured outside court. Maughan disputes encouraging or assisting his son
Just two minutes before the crash, Owen called Hayley’s brother Jason on the phone to say that he was going to ram the family’s truck, jurors were told.
At approximately 9.26pm, Owen used his vehicle ‘as a weapon’, the prosecution said, and the call to Jason disconnected.
Hayley and her family were just over a mile from their home in Brakefield Road, Southfleet, when their car was ‘clipped at considerable speed’, causing it to spin out of control and roll up to three times before coming to a rest upright and facing a hedge.
Hayley checked the back seat following the crash but her son could not be seen.
Peter was thrown from the truck and suffered ‘severe and devastating’ injuries to his head, chest and abdomen,
Hayley, having lifted her daughter from the wreckage, found her son’s body and tried to resuscitate him.
A passing Tesla driver, alerted by her screams for help, then stopped to help.
He then drove the mother and youngsters to nearby Darent Valley Hospital, where Peter was pronounced dead just after 10pm.
A passenger from the Tesla stayed at the scene to look for Mr Mahon, the court heard.
While his mother and sister escaped with what were said to be minor injuries, his father, then 24, suffered multiple fractures and brain trauma, leaving him unlikely to ever walk again.
The court heard that following the collision at 9.26pm, the Maughans drove off up New Barn Road with one of the children’s pushchairs that had fallen from the damaged Ranger stuck under their chassis.
They paused in Longfield for Patrick to get out and remove the registration plate before driving on past their home and onto Hextable where the truck, still with the buggy trapped underneath, was abandoned.
Peter Maughan, right, and his father Lovell Mahon, left, were in the same vehicle when it crashed
Asked by police about seatbelts, Hayley said she did not have hers on and although the children had been strapped in when they drove out that evening, Peter had a habit of undoing his or putting it behind his back.
Explaining she had not double-checked because of her panic, she added: ‘Maybe if I’d checked he would have been alive but I never.
‘I was so scared I didn’t think about it. I just thought “get home, I’m safe at home, get home”.’
Hayley was also asked why she had recorded the chase and messaged her mother, she told police: ‘Because I was in fear for my life. I wanted them to ring the police.
‘They kept following us when my husband drove on to get away. A mother’s instinct. Your children are in the car and you think we’re gonna be in a car crash. We were not getting away, we’re stuck.
‘We’re in this situation. Whether you slow down, they’re gonna get us. Whether we drive fast, we’re gonna be in the car, we’re gonna be in a car accident. So where do you win?’
About the exchange through the truck windows at the roundabout, Hayley said her husband had ‘verified’ to Owen and Patrick that children were present.
Hayley told police she could not think of any reason Owen would have rammed their vehicle. She said there was no feud and her husband did not know either Owen or Patrick.
The mother was re-interviewed by police in September last year. When asked why she thought the collision had been deliberate, she said: ‘Because they chased us. They had enough time to think about it if they didn’t wanna do it or not.
‘I knew something was going to happen because if they chased us along the road and we’re trying to get away as fast as we can, if we didn’t crash ourselves, they were gonna hit us.
‘You don’t chase a baby when they’re running because you know they are gonna fall. It’s not an accident, it’s deliberate.’
She continued: ‘We were in fear for our lives. We begged them, we told them that, it’s on video camera….We told them that the children were in the motor.
‘It wasn’t an accident. They knew what they were doing. They had enough time to think. They chased us from, I think it was Cobham, Shorne.’
Hayley added that at one point she feared their vehicle would tip over but also had a ‘gut feeling’ they would be hit by her cousins’ car.
Peter, who was thrown from the truck and suffered ‘severe and devastating’ injuries to his head, chest and abdomen, was pronounced dead at nearby Darent Valley Hospital. While his father, then 24, suffered multiple fractures and brain trauma leaving him unlikely to ever walk again. Pictured: Peter and his father
She also told police that during the encounter on the slip road exit, Patrick was screaming and making hand gestures, while Owen could be seen to literally bite his tongue in anger.
Of Patrick, whom she refers to as Francis, Hayley said: ‘I think Francis revved it up. I think Francis made this situation 10 times worse than what it was.
‘Francis knew his son was upset. So, if he knew he was gonna do something, why didn’t he get out [of their vehicle]? Why didn’t he take the key out of the motor when that vehicle was stopped? Why didn’t he do something?
‘Francis should have taken the key. He should have got out of the motor. He should have tried to stop his son.’
During cross-examination in court today, Hayley was asked about her husband’s demeanour in the exchange through the vehicle windows when he shouted at the Maughans, calling them ‘f***ing dossers’.
Asked by Tyrone Smith KC, defending Owen Maughan, whether Mr Mahon was being aggressive, she replied: “He was trying to protect his family.’
The court also heard that the rear windows to Lovell’s Wildtrak were tinted.
But during cross-examination by Charles Langley KC, defending Patrick Maughan, Hayley said: ‘They would have seen the kids and they were also told the kids were in the car.’
At the start of the trial on Monday, Prosecutor Richard Jory KC told the jury at Maidstone Crown Court: ‘For reasons that weren’t and aren’t clear, Owen and Patrick were or became very angry and seemingly expressed that anger towards the occupants of the vehicle.’
Referencing both pick-up trucks leaving the A2 at Pepper Hill near Northfleet, Mr Jory said: ‘Whatever the reason Owen and Patrick were clearly, we would say, in a fury.
‘Very angry at the occupants of Lovell’s vehicle.’
Also asked if she believed it was deliberate or accidental, Ms Maughan said: ‘This is a terrible accident what happened, but it’s not an accident – it’s deliberate.’
She told officers that the family had been to McDonald’s and then were driving around to get the children to sleep because Peter was ‘not a good sleeper’.
‘On the way back happy as we always are, happy, laughing, joking,’ she said, before the chase began.
She filmed video clips of Owen and Patrick following them, leaving a voice note for her mother, Erica, in which she said she was afraid.
Asked by officers for any reason why Owen would do this, Ms Maughan replied: ‘No, I want a reason, I need to know why he’s done this.’
Mr Jory said it was the prosecution’s view that the case is ‘slightly unusual’ – but argued it is a case of murder, which was denied by the defendants.
While Owen was the one at the wheel and responsible for the manner of driving, it is the Crown’s case he was being ‘actively encouraged’ by his father.
The pair, of Hill Rise, Darenth, each deny murder.
Owen Maughan has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Peter Maughan, and causing serious injury by dangerous driving and inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Mahon.
He denies causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent to Mr Mahon, as well as two offences of attempting to cause GBH with intent in respect of Annarica and Hayley Maughan.
As well as denying murder and manslaughter, Patrick Maughan has also pleaded not guilty to causing Peter’s death by dangerous driving and three offences in respect of Mr Mahon, namely causing GBH with intent, inflicting GBH and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Patrick Maughan also denies two offences of causing GBH with intent in relation to Annarica and Hayley Maughan.
The trial continues.