A teenager almost crashed head-on into a police car as he drove a suspected stolen BMW the wrong way down the M60 after police chased the 18-year-old.
Brandon Pryde, known as Brandon Geasley, was driving around Wythenshawe on May 27, 2021, in a BMW X4 that had been reported stolen from Bramhall earlier that day, an inquest has heard. The 18-year-old, who was living in Park End Road, smashed into an oncoming car, driven by 66-year-old David Faulkner, as Brandon drove the wrong way down the M60. Both men died at the scene.
A hearing at Manchester South Coroners Court on Monday, July 4, heard from police officers who were involved in the chase, and Brandon's mum, Olivia Geasley, who wore a t-shirt with her son’s face on to mark his memory during the hearing. Mrs Geasley described her son as a "very quiet, shy, and well mannered boy" who would “lecture his friends when they got in trouble”.
The labourer had bigger aspirations for his family and wanted to set up a dog breeding business to help them and make them proud. Assistant coroner Adrian Farrow heard that Brandon had ADHD, and stressful situations sent his brain into “a panic”, meaning the boy with "good morals" would often act first, then “think afterwards”.
Friends and family paid tribute to Brandon at the time of his death, describing the former St Paul's Catholic High School and Sacred Heart Primary School pupil as a "pure, pure soul" who "never had a chance". Sister Gabrielle Mullally said: "My whole family is broken. Without him, this world is worse off. He didn't get his chance to share his beautiful light around this world."
PC Jennifer Barrow, one of the tactical officers who chased Brandon that evening, told the court that she set off to Wythenshawe with three other vehicles from her tactical unit to look for the stolen car, an hour and 20 minutes after it was last spotted in the area by a PSCO. She found the BMW X4 displaying false plates, and tried to find the car after momentarily losing it before it started to speed away from PC Barrow, and she began to chase.
PC Barrow said: “I was looking out for the BMW [as we turned onto Altrincham Road] and up ahead there was a group of cars beyond the Mcdonald’s, probably about five or six cars. I didn’t think anything of it and then one of these cars came out of the group and started to overtake everybody else and speed away. I thought it was the BMW so I put on my emergency equipment and tried to catch up to see whether it was the BMW and to request it to stop.”
PC Barrow and her front passenger, PC Stephen Preston, chased Brandon down Altrincham Road at speeds of 70mph at around 10.15pm, going through three roundabouts before he headed onto the M56, where his speed reached 110mph. Brandon then entered the M60, hitting speeds of 130mph as he sped towards Stockport, coming off at junction 27. When PC Barrow attempted to follow him round the roundabout, she was unable to see which way he’d gone, and headed towards St Mary’s Way in the hopes of finding him.
As PC Barrow and PC Preston gave up their chase another tactical colleague PC Andrew Cale, who had been on his way to join the pursuit, informed them that Brandon had driven back onto the M60, heading down the motorway in the wrong direction. Shortly after this a third officer, PC Amy Howell, reported that she had almost been involved in a head-on collision with Brandon as he drove the wrong way down lane three of the anti-clockwise M60 carriageway.
PCs Barrow, Cale, and Howell all drove down the correct carriageway of the M60 to continue their pursuit, where they discovered Brandon had crashed into another motorist, with his car being flung from the anti-clockwise carriageway over to the hard shoulder of the clockwise carriageway. Brandon was conscious when officers arrived at the scene, but police were unable to remove him from the vehicle as his legs were trapped. He tragically passed away at the scene from multiple injuries.
PC Barrow was asked by Jodie Blackstock, a lawyer representing Brandon’s family, whether her chase was “proportionate” to the crime they suspected Brandon of committing, and she said she believed that the crime and their duty to apprehend him justified the risks of personal injury to either Brandon or other members of the public that arose as a result of chasing him at speeds of over 130mph.
When asked whether her pursuit had encouraged him to drive the wrong way down the motorway, she said: “There’s five or six exits on that roundabout, he could have taken any of those exits and driven down the right way but for whatever reason he has made that choice to go the wrong way back onto the M60 and if he hadn’t we wouldn’t be sat here today. I’ve not made him go the wrong way round the motorway."
A large portion of Ms Blackstock's questioning revolves around the safety of the chase and whether police should have considered any other alternatives available to them to bring the chase to a halt, or whether the chase should have been abandoned when the risks to personal safety rose alongside the speed of the chase, as the risk may have then outweighed the benefit of investigating the crime.
There has been no evidence shown in the court to indicate Brandon was the one responsible for stealing the car, and GMP previously charged a 40-year-old man in connection with the theft of the BMW X4. The inquest is set to hear evidence from the other drivers involved in the pursuit, their passengers, and the tactical advisor who was giving advice to the drivers from the control centre, who has been granted anonymity in this case and can only be referred to as D9.
The hearing has been listed for five days, and is set to conclude by Friday. An inquest into the death of David Faulkner, who was driving the red Vauxhall hit by Brandon, is then set to begin next week.
The hearing continues.
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