Driver using city centre as ‘racetrack’ jailed

LONDON: A driver who treated city centre streets as a “racetrack” while being pursued by police has been jailed for nine years for causing the death of a student.

Joshua Gregory, 28, was travelling at speeds in excess of 80mph in a 30mph area when he drove through a red light and hit 31-year-old Sri Lankan national Oshada Jayasundera, who was crossing the road with friends, in the early hours of December 13 last year, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

Sentencing him, Recorder Paul Mann KC, said: “You were treating the city centre road as if it was a racetrack.”Mr Jayasundera, a postgraduate student doing a Master’s degree in project management at Nottingham Trent University, was returning from a party with friends as he walked across a pedestrian crossing, the court heard.

Mr Thatcher said: “It is, the Crown submits, clear that the lights were showing red against oncoming traffic at the time the defendant would have gone through.”Mr Jayasundera’s father, who had travelled with family from Sri Lanka for the sentencing, left the court as footage of the collision was played.

In a statement, Mr Jayasundera’s family said: “Our family will never recover from this loss for the rest of our lives.“We will have to live with it, suffering every single second, every minute, every hour, every day, every week, and all the years to come.”

Andrew Wesley, defending, said Gregory had a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In a letter sent to the court, the defendant said he felt “great shame and sorrow”.Gregory, who pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving at an earlier hearing, looked down in the dock as he was sentenced.