Omar Choudhury and Hamidur Rahman, who tried to accuse each other in court, were locked up.
Two boy racer BMW drivers who murdered a skilled 16-year-old girl in a tragic crash over a ‘petty argument’ have been imprisoned. Omar Choudhury hit 16-year-old Alisha Goup when he mounted the pavement.
The 22-year-old was driving at 66mph in a 30mph zone on Rochdale Road, leading to the collision. He attempted to overtake a car on the wrong side of the road before colliding with another vehicle and losing control.
Alisha was hit while walking to college on the pavement. Shortly before the deadly incident, Choudhury was pursued by Hamidur Rahman, 24, a member of his extended family with whom he had ‘conflict’.
Prosecutors claimed Rahman blamed Choudhury for notifying his family about a relationship he was having with a woman whose family ‘disapproved’ of. Both agreed to driving carelessly, but denied causing the teenager’s death.
Jurors at Minshull Street Crown Court found both defendants guilty of causing death via hazardous driving, despite their attempts to blame each other during the trial.
The two BMW drivers had an accidental encounter on Chadderton Way on February 23. Rahman flashed a baseball bat before Choudhury took off ‘like a rocket’, with Rahman following.
Witnesses who watched the cars drive by assumed the men behind the wheels were ‘racing’, with one man claiming they were ‘going to murder someone driving like that’.
Rahman pulled off the road six seconds before the incident, but prosecutors argued he was equally guilty as Choudhury since he made a’significant contribution’ to Choudhury’s driving. Alisha was pronounced dead at the site of the crash, which happened around 1.30pm near the Royal Oldham Hospital.
According to Choudhury, an officer was speaking: “I was driving down the road and I was going too fast because I was trying to get away because these men were chasing me with a knife and now someone has punched me.”
Following his arrest, he asked, “Have I killed someone?”
Rahman has previously been convicted of handling stolen goods and hazardous driving as a minor. Choudhury has no previous convictions.
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