Damilola Taylor’s killer led police on 50mph moped chase and sped through red lights
5 August 2024, 20:21
Ricky Preddie has been spared jail by a judge so he can "show real responsibility" to his five-year-old son.
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He is one of the men who killed Damilola Taylor, and led police on a high-speed moped chase.
Ricky Johnson Freddie was only 13 years old when he and his younger brother Danny stabbed Damilola, who was 10, to death as he walked home from a library in Peckham, south London, in 2000.
Previously, Freddie was disqualified from driving until 2033, having reversed into PC Natalia Trzeciak on the pavement in 2019.
He was en route to West Middlesex Hospital to seek "urgent medical care" when police found him riding his cousin's moped, which had already been reported for speeding offences.
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They signalled for him to stop but Preddie, now 37, raced off down Chiswick High Road, reaching speeds of 50mph within 20mph residential zones.
He criss-crossed through a group of pedestrians en route to a local football match, whilst the chasing officers screeched at them to move out the way.
Preddie zoomed through two sets of red traffic lights, before making an abrupt U-turn, having been stalled by a set of temporary road works and police cars.
Then he crashed the moped into the river wall and clambered over the embankment, before jumping 20 feet into the river below.
According to body-worn footage played to the court, a policeman said to his fellow arresting officers: "Guys, he's in the river, he's in the river."
Preddie then waded through the shallow waters and did not put up a fight to being arrested.
He told officers he had "just come out of hospital" and in the video footage wore a catheter.
Prosecutor Harriet Palfreman said: “On March 2 2024, officers noticed a blue Yamaha XMX – the motorcycle was travelling along Chiswick High Road in the direction of Kew Bridge Road.”
Ms Palfreman said the police noticed the Yamaha XCX had formerly been reported for speeding offences.
“They followed directly behind,” it was said.“The vehicle went through a red light and made off at accelerated speeds of 50mph in an area which had a speed limit of 20mph.
“The vehicle continued, whilst being followed by a police officer, and went through another set of red traffic lights situated at temporary road works.
“At this point, he has made a U-turn and headed back up the high street, during which time he was blocked by both temporary road works and lanes marked by the police cars."
Preddie “lost control” of the vehicle by “crashing it into the side of the road”, according to Ms Palfreman.
“He subsequently jumped over the road in an approximately 20ft drop into a river bank, and having run along the river and river bank he was detained at 2.50pm and arrested thereafter,” Ms Palfreman said.
For the purposes of sentencing, Ms Palfreman highlighted Preddie's previous dangerous driving offence from 2019, in which he caused "serious injury".
Natalie Turner, defending Preddie, told the court that her client was “bleeding from his catheter” at home and his decision to evade the police was borne of “panic” and “adrenalin”.
“He was on his way to the hospital because of complications he had received from this operation,” she said.
“He knows that he should not have driven – of course he was disqualified.
"His account, as he’s put forward in the pre-sentence report, is that panic overtook him in that moment.
"He stated that the panic and adrenalin overtook his rational thinking at the time, and given the opportunity again he would not make the same decision as he did on that day.”
Ms Turner said Preddie only "jumped into the reservoir" as he "wasn't aware there was a long drop".
She said he has a five-year-old son and was "very anxious to return to being a presence in his life” having spent 151 days in custody.
Miss Recorder Amanda Pinto KC, sentencing Preddie, said that he was responsible for a “very serious piece of very bad driving”.
“You are 37 years old, you have 60 offences on your record before now,” the judge said.
“You were travelling at 50mph in a 20mph speed limit, and to say that the streets were crowded with pedestrians going to the football match nearby is an understatement.
“I was shocked to see how many people were put at risk from the way you were driving: you went through two red lights and you did a U-turn knowing perfectly well you were being followed by the police.
"The fact that nobody was hurt was sheer luck for you.”
She said that this offence, in tandem with the incident in 2019 when he “reversed intently so that an officer was crushed”, indicated a “pattern of complete disregard for anyone else but you when you are driving”.
Preddie was then sentenced to 12 months imprisonment which was suspended for two years.
He was given credit for his early guilty plea and told by Ms Pinto that the suspended sentence was a chance to “show real responsibility to your son by being there for him all the time”.
Preddie is from Penge in south-east London, and admitted driving a motor vehicle dangerously, driving while disqualified and using a motor vehicle without third-party insurance.
He went on to be sentenced to eight weeks imprisonment suspended for the other driving offence and given an obligatory 12 months disqualification from driving.
He was also ordered to complete 30 days of rehabilitation activity requirements and 240 hours of unpaid work in the community.
