A teenager who was knocked off his motorbike and killed in a spade attack had been warned by his mother not to ride his powerful machine that night, a court heard.
Bike-obsessed Sonny Stephenson, 17, promised he would not go riding round Guisborough, but was fatally injured by angry local resident Matthew Buckworth, Teesside Crown Court heard.
“He could have turned his little life around” – Sonny Stephenson’s mother Elizabeth, on her 17-year-old son, killed in a spade attack by a man angered by nuisance noise from young bikers. pic.twitter.com/itujtEN67r
— Tom Wilkinson (@tommywilkinson) January 26, 2018
Elizabeth Stephenson was going out that evening and warned Sonny: “Don’t take the bike out tonight my lad, be a good lad for your mam.
He replied: “I won’t mam, have a good night.”
But the teenager did not keep his word and was seen – and heard – racing around Guisborough that night.
In a victim statement read to court, his mother said how his loss had left her broken.
The mother-of-four proudly showed Judge Simon Bourne-Arton photos of her blond boy before she read her statement.
She said he was caring, loved animals and was good at fixing things.
She admitted he had “faults” and loved riding his motorbike.
“Because of what has happened to him, he doesn’t get the chance to turn his life around and show people the real Sonny, my son, I know.
“Sonny could have proved to people what he was capable of doing.”
She visits his grave every day and said: “My heart is broken and it will never end.”
