Mum jailed after covering for her hit-and-run biker son
A teenager has been jailed after he seriously injured a six-year-old boy who was crossing the road in a hit and run in Flintshire.
Kaylem Longhurst, now 18, from Nantwich in Cheshire, was sentenced to a total of 14 months in a young offenders’ institution.
His mother Terry Follows was told by the judge she had played a “leading role” in helping her motorcyclist son evade justice, as she was jailed for 26 months.
Arlo Buckley, who is now eight, was hit and seriously injured before the teenager’s family tried to help Longhurst leave the area, Caernarfon Crown Court heard.
Longhurst was found guilty of conspiracy to pervert the course of public justice, along with his mother, Terry Follows and his sister’s partner, Shane Hunt, after a trial at Mold Crown Court in February. He had previously admitted dangerous driving.
Arlo was left with multiple injuries after the incident on Central Drive in Shotton, Flintshire, on 11 September 2024.
Hunt, the driver of the van which took Longhurst to York where he was later arrested, was given a 21-month custodial sentence; Longhurt’s sister Cara Haran was handed nine months.
She was told by the judge that though she played a slightly greater role than Hunt, by burning Longhurst’s clothing following the crash, he had taken into account that she has a six-month-old baby whose welfare had to be considered.
Haran pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge at a pre-trial hearing.
The judge told Follows she “organised all this”, despite a variety of factors suggesting she should take “a different course of action”.
Judge Simon Mills said Follows and Hunt had shown “no remorse” in relation to Arlo, until a period of time in detention on remand led to “some signs of remorse and regret”.
“No sentence I can pass can correct the terrible wrong that was done to this little boy,” he added.
Longhurst’s manner of driving had attracted concern from local people, and his mother Follows had been alerted to it, but had “done nothing”, the judge said.
He said he was riding dangerously, with a bike in a dangerous condition, and that he “should not have been on the road at all”.
After the crash, the judge said Longhurst, who was 16 at the time, “made the choice to run away with his bike,” the judge said.
“He said he thought he had killed the child; he said so himself during the trial.
“He knew he shouldn’t have been on the road, so he set about doing everything he could to distance himself from these facts.”
The judge said Longhurst then called his mother who “set about organising a conspiracy” to help her son evade justice.
This involved Haran burning his clothes, the removal of his bike to nearby alleyway and “getting him as far away as possible”.
“All this is going on while a helicopter is called to the scene for Arlo,” the judge added.
Impact statements from Arlo’s parents said their son was still under treatment with the hospital’s neurological department and an epilepsy clinic and they did not know what future physical and psychological effects the crash might continue to have.
His father Danny said the experience had been “every parent’s worst nightmare.”
His mother Hannah said of the crash’s aftermath, with Arlo in intensive care with serious head injuries, that she was “petrified I was going to lose him, he just looked lifeless.”
She described how he had changed from being a “polite, funny little boy” who had liked lots of cuddles to one who gets overwhelmed by crowds.
Temporary Det Insp Katie Davies, from North Wales Police, called it a “shocking and deeply distressing incident”.
“What is particularly concerning is that members of Longhurst’s own family then assisted him in attempting to evade justice, including helping him leave the area and destroy evidence,” she said.
