The mother of a four-year-old boy killed in a hit-and-run by her cousins sent a series of frantic voice notes while they were being chased, a court has been told.
Hayley Maughan told her mother that she ‘knew they wouldn’t stop’ as her cousins pursued her and her family along the A2 in Kent on June 1, last year.
She was in the car with her husband Lovell Mahon, who was driving, and their two children, Peter and one-year-old daughter Annarica.
Maidstone Crown Court heard the family had been heading home from the town’s high street when the two vehicles came together ‘by chance’ at around 9pm.
Hayley’s cousin Owen Maughan, 27, and his father Patrick, 54, as front seat passenger, began tailing the family for several miles down the A2 motorway.
The pair had been drinking in the Jolly Knight pub and City Wall wine bar in Rochester, Kent – where Owen had around 12 bottles of beers and Patrick had roughly 13, the court heard.
Although it is not known where the pursuit began, by approximately 9.20pm it was being captured on dashcam by three lorries.
Played in court and starting from the A2 junction with Shorne and Cobham, it showed both pickup trucks intermittently braking heavily and pulling up alongside each other as they travelled along the four-lane carriageway.
Pictured: Hayley Maughan and Lovell Mahon’s children, Peter, and his then one-year-old sister, Annarica Maughan
Owen Maughan, 27, and Patrick Maughan, 54, are accused of the murder of Peter Maughan (pictured), who died on June 1, last year
Patrick Maughan, 54, is pictured outside court. Maughan disputes encouraging or assisting his son
Hayley Maughan filmed some of the pursuit and in numerous voice notes sent to her mum, Erica Maughan, she could be heard telling her ‘Told you they haven’t stopped’.
‘I knew they wouldn’t,’ she continued.
Just two minutes before the fatal crash occurred, she added: ‘He’s still following’.
In one video clip sent to her mum and showing Owen and Patrick’s truck behind them, Hayley remarked: ‘Look, he’s still doing it.’
Erica, in turn, could be heard in her voice messages asking her daughter’s whereabouts and saying ‘drive on’.
At the start of the trial on Monday, Prosecutor Richard Jory KC told the jury at Maidstone Crown Court: ‘For reasons that weren’t and aren’t clear, Owen and Patrick were or became very angry and seemingly expressed that anger towards the occupants of the vehicle.’
Referencing both pick-up trucks leaving the A2 at Pepper Hill near Northfleet, Mr Jory said: ‘Whatever the reason Owen and Patrick were clearly, we would say, in a fury.
‘Very angry at the occupants of Lovell’s vehicle.’
While on the slip road, Mr Mahon said there were children in the car and offered to go to the Maughans’ house to resolve the situation, Mr Jory said.
As the chase continued, Owen called Hayley’s brother Jason on the phone to say that he was going to ram the other truck, jurors were told.
Less than two minutes later at approximately 9.26pm, he had done so having used his vehicle ‘as a weapon’, say the prosecution, and the call to Jason disconnected.
Hayley and her family were just over a mile from their home in Brakefield Road, Southfleet, when their car was ‘clipped at considerable speed’, causing it to spin out of control and roll up to three times before coming to a rest upright and facing a hedge.
Peter, who was thrown from the truck and suffered ‘severe and devastating’ injuries to his head, chest and abdomen, was pronounced dead at nearby Darent Valley Hospital shortly after 10pm.
While his mother and sister escaped with what were said to be minor injuries, his father, then 24, suffered multiple fractures and brain trauma leaving him unlikely to ever walk again.
After the crash, Patrick and Owen drove off, pausing so that Patrick could pull the registration plate off the truck.
Peter Maughan, right, and his father Lovell Mahon, left, were in the same vehicle when it crashed
Peter, who was thrown from the truck and suffered ‘severe and devastating’ injuries to his head, chest and abdomen, was pronounced dead at nearby Darent Valley Hospital. While his father, then 24, suffered multiple fractures and brain trauma leaving him unlikely to ever walk again. Pictured: Peter and his father
In her police interview, Ms Maughan said: ‘They chased us. We were in fear for our life. We begged them. We told them that the children was in the motor.
‘I knew he was gonna do it. You’re not stupid… you’re in fear for your life. You’ve got that gut feeling, don’t you?’
Asked why she was in fear for their lives, she added because they kept following us and it was a ‘mother’s instinct’ when your children are in the car you think ‘we’re gonna be in a car crash’.
Also asked if she believed it was deliberate or accidental, Ms Maughan said: ‘This is a terrible accident what happened, but it’s not an accident – it’s deliberate.’
She told officers that the family had been to McDonald’s and then were driving around to get the children to sleep because Peter was ‘not a good sleeper’.
‘On the way back happy as we always are, happy, laughing, joking,’ she said, before the chase began.
She filmed video clips of Owen and Patrick following them, leaving a voice note for her mother, Erica, in which she said she was afraid.
Asked by officers for any reason why Owen would do this, Ms Maughan replied: ‘No, I want a reason, I need to know why he’s done this.’
Of Patrick, whom she refers to as Francis, she described his face as ‘blood, blood, blood red,’ adding: ‘There was like froth coming out of his mouth, he was screaming.’
She said of him as the front passenger in the car: ‘If that was me, you’d try and calm somebody down wouldn’t you… that’s common sense.
‘You’d try and calm them down but Francis wasn’t, he was revving him (Owen) up.’
Mr Jory said it was the prosecution’s view that the case is ‘slightly unusual’ – but argued it is a case of murder, which was denied by the defendants.
While Owen was the one at the wheel and responsible for the manner of driving, it is the Crown’s case he was being ‘actively encouraged’ by his father.
The pair, of Hill Rise, Darenth, each deny murder.
Owen Maughan has pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Peter Maughan, and causing serious injury by dangerous driving and inflicting grievous bodily harm on Mr Mahon.
He denies causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) with intent to Mr Mahon, as well as two offences of attempting to cause GBH with intent in respect of Annarica and Hayley Maughan.
As well as denying murder and manslaughter, Patrick Maughan has also pleaded not guilty to causing Peter’s death by dangerous driving and three offences in respect of Mr Mahon, namely causing GBH with intent, inflicting GBH and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
Maughan Snr also denies two offences of causing GBH with intent in relation to Annarica and Hayley Maughan.
The trial continues.
