When rookie police officer Sarah De Meulemeester stepped on the accelerator of her Peugeot 308 patrol car to answer a 999 call, it set off a train of events that would devastate the lives of so many people.
By the time she got out of her car in Adswood, Stockport, on a dark and wet evening of Boxing Day 2020, a boy of 15 was laying critically injured in the road.
Khia Whitehead, a popular lad and a keen footballer, would spend months at Manchester Royal Infirmary with his parents Laura and Duane at his bedside. He survived but there was a terrible cost. He was paralysed and left in a 'persistent vegetative state' following a catastrophic brain injury.
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He will require 24-hour specialist nursing care for the rest of his life.
The young lad was with a pal at 9pm. He had seen one patrol car, with its blues and twos going, whiz by and, not seeing either of the two other cars following, he stepped into Garners Lane.
He was hit by the Peugoeot, which had been travelling at speeds up to 61mph despite the speed limit of 30mph on Garners Lane and other roads on the way from the station at Cheadle Heath to Adswood.
The trauma of the crash was felt far and wide. It was a shocking incident, especially when it emerged that PC De Meulemeester had no more powers on the roads than any other regular road user.
The 26-year-old rookie cop, who only had a 'standard' driving authority, had to stick to the speed limit like everyone else. She certainly wasn't allowed to drive the wrong way around a traffic island to navigate her way around another vehicle, as she did in the moments before the crash.
It didn't matter that she had learned that she and her colleagues had been dispatched to a cocaine-crazed man with a knife who was threatening his mother and smashing up cars.
The standard of her driving, and those of other officers in a three-car convoy responding to the 'grade 1' call, would be the focus of an investigation conducted by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).
That investigation came to a head today (Friday) when PC Meulemeester, of Chinley in Derbyshire, was convicted of causing serious injury by dangerous driving by a jury at Liverpool Crown Court. She had accepted her driving was careless, but denied it was dangerous.
The verdict was greeted by tears and hugs, and one call of 'yes', by members of Khia's family in the public gallery. They declined to speak after the hearing but their feelings were clear.
Although PC De Meulemeester was told she could be jailed when she returns to be sentenced next month, no sentence could ever come close to compensating Khia or his family. He faces a lifetime of around-the-clock care.
At the outset, doctors told his family he would not be able to walk again let alone play another game of football.
In an emotional social media post a few months after the incident, Khia's parents issued a tribute to the local and surrounding community of Adswood, who rallied round the family. Green balloons and banners were put up around the streets near to where the crash happened, with a green heart becoming the symbol of hope for Khia and his family.
Manchester United stars Ryan Giggs and the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson sent well wishes to the teenager, and a firework display was even let off during a Stockport County game. A fundraising page was launched by Khia's former football coach at Spurley Hey Football Club and quickly raised over £22,000 for the MRI medics who had saved his life.
Instead of Comic Relief red noses, pupils at three local primary schools - Adswood, Bridgehall and Ambrose - dressed in green for Khia.
"It’s been an emotional morning looking at all the kids from Adswood, Bridgehall and Ambrose School dressed in green for Khia," Laura wrote on social media.
"The support everyone has shown him has been outstanding. Thanks to each and every person for every prayer, every band, car stickers, door bows, balloons, banners, and all the fundraising for Khia.
"The list is endless. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts."
Close family friend, Lisa Skopek, told the Manchester Evening News at the time that Khia's family were overwhelmed by the support, which has been a constant source of hope for his parents.
Across the sea in Belgium, where PC De Melemeester was born and raised, another family is also devastated.
"There's no words that can ever begin to say how sorry I am, how sorry I am this happened. There's nothing that can make it right," the officer told the jury.
Now she is facing a possible jail sentence and even if she is spared she may well be sacked by GMP, which will hold gross misconduct hearings against her and another officer who responded to the 999 call that night.
During her trial, a string of character testimonials were read out, some from colleagues and others from her family. They spoke of a shy woman who was so proud to come to study at university in England and then realise her dream of becoming a police officer here.
"What always impressed me was how caring she was," said PC Alice Millington. "I'm convinced that any mistake she feels she has made would constantly be on her mind. She's her own worst critic and that would cause her never to repeat the same mistakes again."
Her aunt in Belgium said 'her dream job was at the police station', and that she had always talked about her work 'with great dedication and respect'.
Another relative said of her: "She's a rather closed person and does not share her feelings easily with anybody but if she trusts you she opens up completely. She's always kind and values loyalty above everything else."
The jury heard her mental health had suffered during the Covid lockdown and it is understood she continues to be traumatised.
PC De Meulemeester told the court she was born and raised in Belgium and speaks Flemish, French and English. She came to the UK in 2014 and obtained a degree in criminal investigation and policing from De Montfort University in Leicestershire because she wanted a career in policing, the court was told.
After she graduated, the defendant failed in her first application to join Greater Manchester Police, but instead became a civilian call handler. But she made a second application and joined the force in early 2019.
She began a 20-week initial training course in July 2019 before being posted to the Stockport division under the care of a police tutor. After a further 10 weeks, she was regarded as 'independent' and could be dispatched to jobs on her own, the defendant told the court.
PC Meulemeester said she 'absolutely loved' her job.
The officer said since she passed her driving test in 2019 she had received no penalty points or speeding tickets and had not been involved in any accidents.
After joining GMP she said she was handed a 'basic driving authority' after spending half-an-hour 'driving around' with a senior colleague. She agreed she knew this 'authority' did not give her powers to ignore traffic laws and that she still had to abide by the Highway Code when responding to incidents.
The PC said she drove to incidents virtually every day she was on shift in different cars.
She said she had responded to 'several' so-called 'grade one' 999 calls, the most serious incidents, before the Boxing Day crash and had never encountered problems previously.
The trial heard the defendant and other officers were sent an email which said officers who only had 'basic driving authority' should not be sent to jobs where there was a 'degree of urgency' if the only way to get there required them to exceed the speed limit and 'contravene' traffic signals.
PC Meulemeester said there had been other emails and 'a lot of confusion', with some alerts suggesting officers with 'basic driving authority' couldn't respond to grade one incidents and others saying they could.
"It changed quite a few times whether you can or cannot attend," the officer told the court, although she agreed she did not have the power to contravene traffic laws no matter what the nature of the call-out.
Her evidence suggested confusion amongst police officers about how to respond to the most serious 999 calls.
Whatever the truth, the focus of public attention remains on the standard of police driving, and if a culture existed which allowed an officer like PC De Meulemeester to drive in the way she did that night.
GMP will hold gross misconduct hearings against the PC, and a second police, officer which are expected to examine police driver conduct, and culture.
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