Teenager admits causing death of seven-year-old scooter girl in motorbike crash
Katniss Seleznev suffered fatal injuries when she was hit by a stolen motorcycle ridden by a 15-year-old boy in Walsall last July.
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A teenager has pleaded guilty to causing the death of a seven-year-old girl who was hit by a motorcycle as she was riding her scooter.
Katniss Seleznev died in hospital hours after suffering severe injuries when she was hit by a blue Suzuki motorbike that failed to stop in Turnstone Road, Walsall, on the evening of July 27 last year.
A 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, admitted causing death by dangerous driving when he appeared at Wolverhampton Magistrates’ Court’s youth court on Wednesday.
Prosecutor Simon Brownsey told the court the motorbike involved in the collision had been reported stolen the month before Katniss was killed and was later found burned in scrubland.
He said a number of children were playing in the quiet side street when the crash happened.
He said: “It is suburbia. CCTV shows the children came around the corner on their scooters, with Katniss at the back. When you look at the footage, what she didn’t realise is that she had only seconds to live.”
The moment of impact was not caught on camera, but Mr Brownsey said Katniss could be seen “flying through the air” and landing on the tarmac, where another small child tried to help pull her to the side of the road.
Two adult witnesses saw the motorbike driving down the road “at speed” before the collision, with one woman saying to her partner: “Bloody hell, the children are playing down there.”
The court heard that the couple then saw the crash happen behind them, and they stopped to call 999 and help given Katniss CPR.
The boy on the bike did not stop at the scene, instead driving to a nearby road where a number of other youths were.
He was heard remarking on CCTV footage: “She’s a vegetable.”
“His body language suggested he was distraught and upset,” Mr Brownsey said.
When the boy was arrested and later told that Katniss had died, he “became upset at hearing that news”, he said.
The motorcycle was later found in some nearby scrubland “very damaged and had been set on fire”, he added.
Describing the effect of Katniss’s death on her family, Mr Brownsey said: “Her mother has not really left the house since this incident happened. The impact upon her mother, father, and her siblings is grave, very grave indeed.”
He said the boy had made a “deliberate decision to ignore the rules of the road” and showed no regard for the safety of other road users.
He said: “Katniss was seven, she was a vulnerable road user. A very serious aggravating factor is that (the boy) did not stop – he carried on, knowing what he had done, knowing he had, in his words, ‘left her as a vegetable’.”
Katniss was very small and very vulnerable. The incident has had a profound effect on her parents
Addressing the boy, who appeared in court wearing a black suit and tie, Judge Michael Wheeler said the case was too serious for him to pass sentence and ordered that he appear at Wolverhampton Crown Court on May 22 for sentencing,
He told him: “You have come to court today and pleaded guilty. This is clearly an offence that is in the top category of offending.
“It is a case where you have come into possession of a motorbike and drove it in a way that disregarded the safety of others.
“Katniss was very small and very vulnerable. The incident has had a profound effect on her parents.
“You have a previous conviction from a matter of weeks before this incident for taking a car.
“You were also guilty of failing to stop at the scene of an accident but you have not been charged with that because the six-month time limit to charge you has expired, but I have to take that into consideration as an aggravating factor.”
As part of his bail conditions, the boy was told he is not allowed to enter Walsall and has been disqualified from driving until the date of his sentencing.