Boy racers jailed after killing teenager who went for a jog near his home

Parents stumbled on accident, not knowing their son had died

A father has spoken of the moment he went out looking for his son who was late home from a jog, only to discover the teenager had been killed by two boy racers minutes from home.

William Dorey, 18, had gone for a run near the family house in Whitley Bay but, when his parents saw police cars in the area, dad Hugh went out to investigate.

He stumbled on the accident site – where he was eventually told the fatal victim was his own son.

His two killers, Joshua Cherukara and Harry Cable, were both jailed at Newcastle Crown Court after admitting causing death by dangerous driving on May 7 last year.

William Dorey (Northumbria Police)

Footage released by Northumbria Police showed they were racing in two separate cars at 80mph in a 30-zone. Another clip showed Cherukara, after his arrest, holding his head in his hands after apparently being told he had killed someone.

Speaking at the hearing, Mr Dorey said wife Gill and their two other sons, Joseph and Daniel, would never recover from the tragedy.

He recalled reaching the accident site. “I kept glancing up the road, half expecting Will to come running down towards me," he said, as reported in the Newcastle-based Chronicle Live. "At this point I didn’t know what in front of me was the scene of my son’s fatal accident.”

As he waited, Mrs Dorey rang her husband and, as his fears mounted, he told her to come to the scene.

Mr Dorey said: “An officer showed us a smashed mobile phone and spectacles and asked if we recognised them. I said something like ‘Oh Jesus Christ’.

“Neither of us could bear to look. We turned our heads away. Gill then realised it was Will’s phone. She knew that was the end of her life as she knew it.”

The couple were taken to the Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary.

“I remembered the hospital was where Will had been born,” Mr Dorey said. “What a contrast between the joy of taking our new born baby son home and now arriving in a police car to identify his body.

“Immediately we saw it was our dearest Will lying there. There were a number of awful injuries to his head, forehead and face. Gill could see grit in his teeth. He had beautiful teeth. Gill crumpled and had to be supported. She was beside herself.”

The father, 57, said that his wife said to him: “I loved him and he loved me. My baby is dead.”

The court heard William - an A-Level student at Kings Priory School in Tynemouth - died after Cherukara lost control of his vehicle and mounted the pavement at 80mph while racing Cable at 10pm. The force of the crash sent the the youngster 53 metres down the road.

Judge Paul Sloan QC told the joy riders: “You both took a deliberate decision to ignore the rules of the road and showed a total disregard, causing great danger to other road users.

“You each engaged in a prolonged, persistent and deliberate course of bad driving involving excessive speed, racing and competitive driving, as well as aggressive driving."

Cherukara, 20, of Dachet Road, Whitley Bay, was sent to a young offenders’ institution for six years and nine months. Cable, 18, of Deneholm, Whitley Bay, was given four-and-a-half years. The pair have been banned from driving for four years after their release.