| A failed asylum seeker who left a 12-year-old girl to die in a road traffic accident has won the right to remain in this country |
| Mr Ibrahim, who has never held a valid licence, had been banned for nine months for driving while disqualified, and had run out of appeals against deportation when he fled the scene of the accident as Amy Houston lay dying under the wheels of his black Rover car. The Iraqi Kurd, who has since committed further driving offences, was told by a judge in Manchester that he could stay in the UK because, in the six years since the tragedy, he had put down roots, married a British woman and now has two daughters |
| The Iraqi Kurd, 31, was jailed for four months in December 2003 after he fled the scene of a crash that left schoolgirl Amy Houston dying under the wheels of his car in Blackburn, Lancs. Months before the accident, Ibrahim had been banned for nine months for driving while disqualified, without insurance and without a licence. New laws introduced in 2007 now carry longer prison sentences for such offences. Amy was outside her home in November 2003 when she was knocked down after running into the path of Ibrahim's car. He was later jailed for driving whilst disqualified and failing to stop after an accident. |
| Amy was on her way to a record shop to buy the new CD of her favourite group Busted when she stepped into the road near her home in Blackburn and into the car’s path. The child, who was trapped under the vehicle, had to be freed by firemen. A police officer drove the ambulance to hospital to allow the paramedics to treat the child but she died later that day. While the rescue operation was under way Mr Ibrahim panicked and fled from the scene. He later confessed to a friend what he had done and gave himself up to police. He subsequently served two months of a four-month jail term. |