Appearing in court over the death of his three year-old son Albie, Neil Speakman (Image: MEN)
A heartbroken farmer who wept when cleared of killing his three year-old son when hitting him with a defective forklift-style vehicle has been jailed for one year. Albie Speakman, aged three, suffered catastrophic injuries after his father reversed the telehandler forklift into him at the family farm in Tottington, near Bury, Greater Manchester, on 16th July 2022.
On 4th February dad Neil Speakman, 39, broke down in tears when cleared his son’s gross negligence manslaughter and as the verdict was read, the father turned to his girlfriend Millie Barrack – who he began a relationship with after splitting from Albie’s mother – and said: “I told you.” Now on Friday at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court Speakman was jailed after earlier admitting breaching a section of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 after failing to ‘ensure the health and safety of Albie, so far as is reasonably practical’.
In an emotional victim impact statement – which left Speakman in tears – Albie’s shattered mum Leah Bridge said: “It’s almost impossible to comprehend that I am never going to experience the world in the same way I did, now that Albie is not here.”
Considering his sentence, Judge Mr Justice Charles Bourne KC explained how there was “powerful” personal mitigation, and deeply felt emotion, from the defendant.
Mr Justice Bourne said: “The court accepts there is a difference between a defendant who has suffered a bereavement and a defendant who has not.”
Adressing Speakman after a short recess to consider his sentence, the judge told him: “Instead of keeping you on tenterhooks, my decision is to pass an immediate sentence of imprisonment but not a long sentence.
“You have got to face up to the responsibility that what happened was not bad luck. It was an entire failure to look after Albie and keep him safe.
“You were the person caring for him, and it wasn’t necessary for you to work. There was nothing difficult about keeping Albie safe.
“While he played in the garden you were working nearby on a telehandler and he was killed in a collision as you reversed.”
The judge said there was a “mismatch” between the court’s sentencing powers, the offence and the tragedy of what happened.
He explained that the maximum sentence is two years, though this “does not reflect the death of a three year old child”, adding that the tragedy was a “flagrant” health and safety breach.
He added: “In mitigation, the loss of Albie has had, and always will have, a profound impact on you. I give weight to that. You have taken steps to make farms a much safer place for your family.”
Referring to the HSE inspectors report, Mr Justice Bourne continued: “The rate of fatal accidents on farms is far higher than average of all industries. And being struck by a moving vehicle is the leading cause of farm-place fatality.
“Unsafe workplaces pose dangers to the public as well as family and employees. The farming community must understand that offences of this type will attract strict legal consequences.”
Addressing Ms Bridge the judge said: “This was a terrible tragedy for the child, for you, for Ms Bridge, and for the rest of the family.”
During the two-week trial that started in January, jurors heard the collision happened in a yard next to a small garden area at the front of the farmhouse.
A few minutes earlier the father had left Albie to play with their two pet dogs. But while Speakman had used the Kramer telehandler before, he was not officially trained and it had various defects – including a missing wing mirror.
Beaming three year-old boy Albie Speakman (Image: MEN)
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Albie with his heartbroken mum Leah Bridge (Image: MEN Media)
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Leah Bridge at the grave of her son Albie Speakman. Radcliffe Cemetery (Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
The prosecution told jurors Albie died “as a result of his father’s negligence, which created a serious and obvious risk of death”.
The telehandler – used to move logs for Speakman’s firewood-supply business – was later inspected by health and safety officials, who found its various defects would have hindered safe operation.
It concluded it was “foreseeable that persons in the vicinity of the vehicle could be injured or killed when the vehicle was working”.
Their report added: “The operator would have had a restricted view of a person in certain positions near to the rear of the vehicle, more so a person of less than average height.”
Speakman was interviewed by police and said Albie “knew not to go near anything”, adding: “He knew, he weren’t f****g stupid… it’s a farm isn’t it?
“It’s not a f*****g playground and Albie knew it weren’t, he knew his boundaries. He knew where he could go and where he couldn’t go.”
An officer asked: “How did he know?” Speakman replied: “Because you told him. You know he wasn’t a r***rd.”
Albie would stay at the farm on alternate weekends, and was dropped off by his mum, Leah Bridge, in the morning of July 16, jurors were told. Speakman and Ms Bridge had separated shortly after Albie was born.
After discovering he had reversed into Albie, Speakman ran into the house and asked his partner to call an ambulance.
Neil Speakman and partner Millie Barrick (Image: Manchester Evening News)
Prosecutor John Elvidge KC told jurors: “He said something like, “I caught him with the tractor, I got him’. Mr Speakman had Albie in his arms and was in a state of panic.”
On the way to the hospital they flagged down a passing ambulance, where Albie was attended to by paramedics.
They were unable to resuscitate him and he was pronounced dead that afternoon at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. A post mortem report showed that he had suffered ‘multiple crush injuries’ to his head, body and legs.
Giving evidence in his manslaughter trial the devastated and grieving dad told jurors it was a “tragic accident”.
Breaking down in tears, he said: “If I thought Albie was even an inch into that yard I would never have moved that vehicle. If I thought for one second he was not on that grass I would not even have moved that stupid thing.
“I shouldn’t have to do this, it’s f*****g not fair. I shouldn’t have left him in the garden, we all know that.
“I have not met the standard of care. Is it truly exceptionally bad, neglectful behaviour? No. I messed up, I made a mistake.”
Speakman told his barrister Alexander Leach KC that he was “more than competent” at driving his neighbour’s telehandler, which he said he had used “200/300 times easily”.
He said as the telehandler had a missing wing mirror, he would “check profusely” for blind spots but didn’t see his son.
He said: “I am always careful in what I do. He was my little boy.”
Neil Speakman, 39, leaves Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court. (Image: Manchester Evening News)
Asked to describe what happened next, he said: “You felt a bump instantly. I had travelled 10cm, 20cm… I stopped instantly. It was a split second. I looked right and saw his legs, and jumped off.”
He told prosecutor John Elvidge KC, cross-examining: “It was a tragic accident. I made a mistake.”
Mr Elvidge said: “Do you agree that hat you had an obligation to ensure that Albie was kept apart from any moving vehicles?”
“Yes,” said Speakman.
Mr Elvidge said: “Tell us what you did to stop Albie coming close to a moving vehicle before he was struck by the telehandler.”
The court heard in 2020 Speakman was warned by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) about the use of another piece of farm machinery with a lifting bucket attached.
The HSE raised concerns over a video posted online showing his partner Ms Barrack, inside the bucket in the air as the defendant moved the vehicle and he was heard joking: “I’m going to drop you!”
The HSE sent him a letter warning of the potentially fatal consequences. He claimed in court he never saw the letter.
Alexander Leach KC, defending, said his client receives Universal Credit, with the total family income £1,300 and disposable income £660.
Speakman has previous convictions for violence in 2022 and public order offences in 2004 and 2023, the court was told.
Heartbroken mum Leah Bridge’s tearful victim statement
“On the 16th July 2022, my life changed forever, in every single way imaginable. My world has been shattered into a million irreparable pieces, and no one can fix it or understand what I am going through.
“And there are absolutely no words to describe how I’m feeling – pain, sadness, heartbreak, they don’t even come close.
“So, when people ask – I just say I’m feeling okay. but the reality is I’m completely broken, my world has been destroyed, and time has stood still for me, yet everything around me seems to keep moving.
“It’s been two and a half years since Albie was taken from us, and believe me when I say, it does not get any easier. It’s like no one can see how broken I am and how broken my life is, forever.
“There will always be darkness within my life, behind every smile, or laugh and I feel guilty that I am still alive when Albie isn’t. I am not religious, and I do not believe in God but I have prayed more times that I can count – prayed that I could swap places with Albie.
“Albie is my entire life, he saved me when he came into this world, and I am devastated that I could not do the same for him.
“Everything I did was for Albie, I dedicated my life to him. I worked in the nursery he attended, and after the incident I could not return to work for around two years as there was just too much heartbreak in what it once was for us.
“I couldn’t t be around the other children, especially Albie’s friends as they would have asked me where he was. I have since returned to work and it is hard for me.
“There are some tributes to Albie, around the nursery, ‘Albie’s Buddy Bench’ and a plaque of a star is displayed on the wall, that has been bought for Albie. And every time I look at those tributes – I just crumble inside at the reality of mine and Albie’s life.
“I am so scared that I will start to forget his voice or the things he said. I have already forgotten his smell and how it felt to have his little hands on my face.
“I kept Albie’s clothes that were in the wash basket at the time he died and I never washed them, there is an item of his clothing that I keep close and I have smelt it so much over the past two and a half years that there is no smell left on it.
“And there will become a time in my life where other things will fade too, like my own memory, and then what will I do?
“It’s almost impossible to comprehend that I am never going to experience the world in the same way I did, now that Albie is not here. When I think ahead to my future – I just don’t see a time where I will be truly happy again, and that is a very scary thought. It is like I am just going through the motions waiting until I die.
“I am heartbroken that Albie’s baby brother will never get to meet him or play with him. Albie would have made the best big brother in the world. And it will be my promise to Albie, to keep his memory alive for as long as I remain on this earth.
“All day, every day, Albie is in my every thought, and there are still so many questions that will forever remain unanswered. Why you? Did you suffer? How could someone think that little of you that they would risk your life?
“Albie was just a baby, and he deserved so much more than this world gave him. I go to Albie’s grave most days, It’s become a huge part of my daily routine, I make sure it is tidy for him, I bring flowers, I clean Albies headstone and tell him I am sorry a million times over because these are the only things I can do for Albie now, this is the only way I know how to parent him.
“Each day the pain and despair continue, as it sinks in more and more that Albie is never coming back. Knowing I’ll never watch Albie play with his toys again or tuck him in his bed at night and I just think – this can’t be real; this can’t be our life Albie.
2You are only three and you had such a beautiful life ahead of you, you had so many things left to do and see. And it absolutely breaks me to think that you have had to be brave enough to experience something as harrowing as death at three-years old.
“It puts into perspective how close I am to death, and I no longer fear it. Before Albie was killed – I have never thought about death, but now it’s all I think about, and I am not scared of dying anymore.
“To everyone that hears this – Albie is just a name, but to me Albie was my reason to live, Albie was the voice who said “mummy, I love you”, Albie was the person I shared my life with, Albie is a brother, a grandson, a friend at nursery. Albie is everything to me and now he is not here because of someone else’s actions.
“Albie, you are my everything boy and I am your everything girl. The only thing that keeps me going is thinking that every new day is one day closer to me seeing you again.
“I love you endlessly my sunshine boy.”