Boy left for dead by 70mph car but no one knows who was driving

A grandmother of a 15-year-old boy left with life changing injuries in hit-and-run has appealed for information to help catch the driver.

A stolen silver Honda Accord hit the boy, who was riding his bike on Bracknell Avenue near Kirkby High School, Kirkby, on 22 December last year.

He suffered multiple injuries including a brain injury and had to have his leg amputated. The driver has never been found.

In an appeal on BBC One’s Crimewatch Live, his grandmother said: “How can someone drive around knowing they’ve done that, I don’t understand.”

The boy’s grandmother described how she had been preparing for Christmas celebrations when she heard what had happened.

“I was at the dining table wrapping Christmas presents and he was out on his bike when a knock on the door came,” she said.

She added: “I thought ‘oh he’s gone out without his key’ and there was this fella there and he said my grandson had been knocked over.”

“Everything comes to a halt,” she said.

She said she was willing the boy to “please be alive, please be alive, don’t be dead”.

Her grandson had suffered multiple head, limb and chest injuries and spent months in hospital and he now uses a wheelchair.

“There’s a lot to be said for doing the right thing and speaking up when you know something as horrible as this has happened,” she said.

Crimestoppers is offering a reward of up to £7,500 to find who was behind the wheel at the time.

Police have confirmed the car was travelling over 70mph in a 20mph zone when it hit the boy before driving off.

Det Sgt Simon Duffy from Merseyside Police said: “This was a shocking incident which has left a teenage boy with life-changing injuries which continue to impact him to this day.

“It is incomprehensible to think that anyone could even consider driving away and leaving the boy with such catastrophic injuries.

“We remain committed to tracking that person down and anyone who may have assisted following the collision.

The force said enquiries were ongoing and appealed to anyone who may have seen the 2018 dark silver Honda Civic with the false registration plate OV70 OWG in the Sefton and Kirkby areas in the weeks ahead of the incident.