A drink-fuelled driver who deliberately rammed a truck off the road at 60mph, killing four-year-old Peter Maughan, has today been found not guilty of murder.
Although Owen Maughan accepted responsibility for the boy’s death in the high-speed hit-and-run on the evening of June 1 last year, he denied intending to cause really serious harm to any of the occupants in the youngster’s parents’ Ford Ranger Wildtrak.
On trial at Maidstone Crown Court, he said that when he clipped the vehicle driven by little Peter’s dad, Lovell Mahon, he simply wanted to “nudge” it and never meant the catastrophic consequences that unfolded.
Aware from the start of the trial that he had admitted Peter’s manslaughter, the jury acquitted the 27-year-old of the more serious offence after deliberations lasting more than 17 hours.
Also cleared of the little boy’s murder was Maughan’s 54-year-old father, Patrick.
He had been the front seat passenger in Owen’s vehicle – again a Ford Ranger Wildtrak – when it hit Mr Mahon’s 4×4 on New Barn Road, Southfleet, just before 9.30pm.
As Peter’s family, including his mum and dad, left the court building they did not talk to waiting media but could be heard to shout “Go Peter Rabbit” and Peter Rabbit all the way”.
It was the prosecution case that, for reasons unknown, father and son were “in a fury” having angrily and aggressively pursued Mr Mahon, his wife Hayley Maughan and their children, Peter and one-year-old sister Annarica, along the A2 before Owen Maughan used his truck as a weapon while being actively encouraged by his dad to do so.
Owen had in fact accepted that, during a call with Hayley’s brother, Jason, he had threatened “I’m going to ram them” just seconds before a clunking noise was heard and the phone line disconnected.
But in his evidence to the jury he denied ever adding “We don’t give a f***” as alleged, and maintained that the tragic event that evening was never intended, and his father was not responsible in any way.
As well as being cleared of murder, the defendants – who are Hayley Maughan’s cousin and uncle – were also acquitted of inflicting grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent to Mr Mahon, who was left paralysed after the horror smash.
The jury also returned not guilty verdicts for each defendant in respect of two offences of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent to Hayley and Annarica.
Patrick was, however, found guilty of Peter’s manslaughter and inflicting GBH to Mr Mahon, charges his son had previously admitted along with causing serious injury by dangerous driving to Mr Mahon.
The verdicts were returned with Peter’s mum and dad sitting in court for the first time. There was no reaction from any of those in support of them and the defendants.
During their three-week trial, the court heard Owen Maughan had pulled onto the wrong side of the road when he rammed the rear offside of Mr Mahon’s truck with the front nearside of his vehicle.
The impact caused the vehicle to rotate out of control and then catastrophically roll up to three times.
Peter, who was affectionately known by loved ones as Peter Rabbit, was thrown out of the truck from his rear seat and died from what were described as “severe and devastating” head, chest and abdomen injuries.
The jury heard the injuries were unsurvivable, even with immediate medical care, and some bore characteristics reminiscent of tyre tread marks, possibly consistent with being run over or crushed during roll-over.
His dad was also ejected from the Ranger and sustained multiple fractures and brain trauma, leaving him wheelchair-bound and unlikely to walk ever again.
Miraculously, the court was told, Hayley and her daughter escaped with minor injuries.
At the time of the pursuit and subsequent horrific smash, the family of four was heading home to Brakefield Road in Southfleet following a visit to Pepe’s restaurant in Maidstone.
Owen and Patrick Maughan were also on their way home to Hill Rise in Darenth after a six-hour drinking session in Rochester where they downed as many as 25 bottles and pints of lager between them.
Jurors heard, however, that it was purely by chance that the parties’ paths crossed that evening, and the reason for trouble to fatally explode within the space of six minutes still remains unclear.
Although the families had not spoken for years, there was no ongoing feud, and a disagreement between Hayley Maughan and Owen’s sister, Nicole Maughan, at the school gates a few weeks earlier had been resolved, it was said.
Owen, a married dad of three whose youngest was born a few months after his arrest, and his father will now be sentenced at a later date.
Judge Oliver Saxby KC did not request reports to consider dangerousness but said he needed to know more about their “backgrounds and motivations”.
Remanding the pair back into custody, he told them: “These [offences], you well know, are serious offences. I need more information about you before I am in a position to pass sentence.
“But, you will know, it will be a lengthy sentence that I am obliged to pass.”
Judge Saxby also thanked the jury for the care they had taken on an “upsetting case”, adding: “It would have taken its toll, I have no doubt.”
He also remarked on the dignity shown by those present in the courtroom in support of the victims and the defendants.
Before the jurors had retired on Monday (February 16) to start deliberating their verdicts, Judge Saxby had directed them that in order to convict Owen Maughan they had to be “sure” his intent was to cause really serious harm when he rammed the Ford Ranger.
It did not matter whether he knew how many occupants were in the vehicle or their identities.
In the case of Patrick Maughan, the jury was told the issues to consider were encouragement and intent.
Evidence at trial included video and audio recordings made by Hayley herself on her phone of her family being allegedly “harassed and terrified” for several minutes by the defendants along the A2 from Cobham until the Pepperhill junction at Northfleet.
Lorry dashcam footage also captured around three minutes of the chase, showing the vehicles changing lanes, braking heavily, and pulling up alongside each other.
The clips filmed by a frightened Hayley Maughan on WhatsApp showed the Maughans’ vehicle closely on their tail as well as aggressive exchanges through the Ranger windows.
She then sent the footage and voicenotes to her mum, providing a running commentary and detailing her panic and fear.
Later, when she spoke to police, she described Patrick Maughan as being red in the face, “revving up” his son “like a volcano ready to explode” and making the situation “10 times worse”.
She said she could see him “frothing” at the mouth and Owen Maughan biting his tongue “in temper”.
“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,” Hayley told officers.
“It wasn’t an accident. They knew what they were doing. They had enough time to think.”
The court heard that it was just a few seconds after she filmed her husband shouting “Children in this motor” to the Maughans as the vehicles pulled alongside each other at the Pepperhill junction that the fatal crash occurred.
But, instead of pulling over to help, the defendants sped off from “the carnage they had created”, said the prosecution, driving through debris scattered in the road and with a child’s pushchair that had fallen from the rear of the rammed truck wedged under their chassis.
They headed towards Longfield, stopping briefly so Patrick Maughan could rip off the front number plate in what was alleged to be a bid to cover their tracks.
The pair then continued for several miles to Plantation Road in Hextable where they abandoned their Ranger, visibly damaged to the front nearside and still with the buggy jammed underneath.
Owen, a builder by trade with no previous convictions, fled to Manchester while his dad went to his sister’s in Berkshire.
Both were arrested within two days. Owen returned to Kent to hand himself in to police on June 2 while Patrick was detained on June 3 after he was found by officers in bed heavily intoxicated.
Maughan Snr also lied about not having a phone and, when his device was discovered, he refused to give the PIN so it could be examined.
The court heard police have been unable to access it since.
Although they each gave ‘No comment’ interviews, Patrick Maughan provided two prepared statements in which he denied any intent to cause death or really serious harm, or having “planned or conspired” to do so.
He did not give evidence at trial but his son told the jury he had simply wanted to put a dent in the Ford Ranger so Mr Mahon would pull over for a fist fight at the side of the road.
At times crying in the witness box, he said that on his journey home that evening he had recognised the vehicle as one commonly used by Travellers and, as he pulled up alongside, Mr Mahon was acting aggressively towards him, waving a fist.
They had not met before and it was his dad who told him who the driver was, explained Maughan Jnr.
He agreed he tailed him to “annoy” Mr Mahon, there was “arguing back and forth” between the trucks, and he and his dad were “upset”.
But Owen Maughan maintained he had not heard Mr Mahon shouting that there were children in his vehicle, which had tinted rear windows, and did not know of any child was present.
Regarding the call with Jason Maughan, although he accepted saying he would ram them, he denied he also remarked, as alleged, “We don’t give a f***”.
Owen Maughan also told the jury that what happened that night had “nothing to do with” his father.
The court heard that none of the seatbelts or child seat restraints in Mr Mahon’s Wildtrak were in use. With the latter, the attached harnesses were at their minimum setting for the smallest of children.
On the question of force used, a forensic collision expert said it was her opinion it “probably fell” between minor and moderate.
Furthermore, it was said that Mr Mahon’s Ranger’s restraint control modules (RCM) – a computer safety system designed to react in the event of a collision or anticipation of a collision and which can be triggered by a sudden or significant increase or decrease in speed – was activated but not as a result of the impact from the defendants’ vehicle itself.
Nor did the collision activate the RCM on Owen Maughan’s Wildtrak, the jury was told.
Prosecutor Richard Jory KC had told the court in his closing speech that the accused had “acted together” in ramming the other vehicle and that it was “hard to separate” them in terms of culpability.
Furthermore, he said Owen Maughan had “demonstrably lied” in court about events and “shouldered the blame” out of loyalty to his dad.
However, Tyrone Smith KC, defending Owen Maughan, argued there was no “direct evidence” of his client’s intent when he hit the other Wildtrak.
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He asserted that what was in everyone’s minds when they turned into New Barn Road was simply “an anticipation of a fist fight in the traditional Traveller way”.
Mr Smith also told the court that although the defendant’s actions in the aftermath were “pretty outrageous and cowardly”, they did not prove his intent.
Charles Langley KC, defending Patrick Maughan, said the alcoholic had gone drinking that day as he did every Sunday and by the time he headed home with his son was drunk.
But he asserted in his closing speech that the prosecution had not produced any direct evidence that his client said or did anything in encouragement of his son, and that neither “mere presence” nor the circumstantial evidence were enough to convict him.
Furthermore, the barrister said the decision by Owen Maughan to ram may have been a “split second” one in which Patrick Maughan had no time to encourage or foresee what happened.
Accepting the defendant’s actions in the aftermath were “appalling and cowardly”, Mr Langley said they were consistent with “a father trying to protect his son”.
At the trial’s start, Patrick Maughan also faced offences of causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
However, the jury was discharged by the judge from returning verdicts on those two counts.
Speaking outside of court, Detective Sergeant Dean Sycamore said: “Owen and Patrick Maughan have today been convicted of causing the death of four-year-old Peter Maughan and seriously injuring his father, Lovell.
“For reasons we may never know, Owen deliberately rammed their vehicle off the road before he and Patrick fled the scene, showing no regard for the devastation they had left behind.
“The jury agreed this was a deliberate act, and the passenger, Patrick, intentionally encouraged his son to drive this way.
“Both men must now face the consequences of their actions. This was a tragic and entirely avoidable incident.
“Their lives have been irreversibly changed by the deliberate and dangerous actions of these two men.
“Yet despite everything, the victims and their wider family have shown extraordinary courage and resilience throughout the trial.
“I hope today’s verdict brings them some measure of justice and offers a small degree of comfort to Peter’s loved ones.”
