Driver jailed for life over murder of e-bike rider in Birmingham

A operator who utilized his car “as a weapon” to hunt down and ram a antheral connected an electrical off-road motorcycle successful Birmingham has been jailed for beingness for murder.

Abdirahman Ibrahim, 21, near Liam Jones to dice connected the roadside aft hitting him doubly with his Seat Leon successful the Yardley country connected 1 August 2023, Birmingham crown tribunal was told.

Jones, 22, was “showboating” with a friend, Tayzhon Johnson, erstwhile Ibrahim chased them unprovoked and knocked the unfortunate disconnected his motorcycle and into a factual post, the tribunal heard.

Jones, described arsenic the “spark” of his family, died astatine the country aft paramedics tried to prevention him.

Judge Smith KC told the suspect helium had utilized the car arsenic a “weapon” and pursued Jones and Johnson “in a determined and deliberate way”.

“You became alert of Liam Jones and Tayzhon Johnson arsenic you entered the Coventry Road and you changed your absorption to travel them.”

He added: “There is nary grounds that Mr Jones oregon Mr Johnson ever participated successful racing with your car oregon did thing to promote you to interact with them.”

Liam Jones was described by his sister Kelly arsenic a ‘loved son, brother, uncle and person to many’. Photograph: West Midlands police/PA

The justice said the 2 men had realised they were being followed and went down a one-way thoroughfare successful an effort to get distant from the car, but Ibrahim drove astatine velocity on different adjacent roadworthy to drawback them.

Smith added: “Your actions successful the contiguous aftermath of this deliberate collision were governed by a selfish tendency to flight from the country and progressive nary attraction for Mr Jones.”

Ibrahim’s brother, Abdullahi Ibrahim, pleaded blameworthy to assisting an offender and was jailed for 2 years and 10 months, for efforts to fell the conveyance successful the hours aft the murder.

Abdirahman Ibrahim was recovered blameworthy of Jones’s execution successful February aft a retrial, having admitted the lesser complaint of manslaughter, claiming the fatal collision was an mishap aft a race.

CCTV footage showed to the tribunal established that little than 10 minutes earlier the collision, Jones had performed a “stand-up wheelie” adjacent the car.

In a unfortunate idiosyncratic statement, Jones’s sister Kelly Jones said helium had 5 siblings and was a “loved son, brother, uncle and person to many”.

She said helium should person been “living his beingness to the max, enjoying each day, being carefree, having a laughter and making memories”.

“But that was each taken distant from him successful the worst imaginable way. I don’t deliberation that immoderate of america volition ever get implicit the information that we ne'er got to accidental goodbye to Liam,” she said.

“We were called to the roadside wherever his lifeless assemblage lay. We had to basal by and ticker the exigency services effort and bash each they could to prevention his life.”

She added: “Every time is simply a conflict without Liam. Our lives person been shattered into pieces.

“Liam was the spark of our family. He had superb banter and would ever conscionable marque america laugh. He was the amusive and bubbly one.”