A jury has been shown the final moments of a 13-year-old schoolboy who was killed when a £1.2million Ferrari supercar careered into a wooden post.
CCTV footage showed Alexander Worth climbing into the Ferrari F50 to have his photo taken.
However, businessman Matthew Cobden, 39, instead said he would take the teenager, who was with his mother and is pictured wearing a white T-shirt, for a short drive.
Matthew Cobden (pictured left) is on trial at Winchester Crown Court accused of causing the death by careless driving of Alexander Worth (right)
A witness at the scene of the crash (pictured) said Alexander’s mother was ‘extremely distraught’ as her young son lay dying on the ground next to the Ferrari F50
Tonight, CCTV of Alexander’s final moments was released. The schoolboy, in a white T-shirt, can be seen approaching the red Ferrari
Neither put on a seat belt before Cobden drove the car, which had just been used for a motoring magazine photo shoot, away from the farm estate where his high-end car storage business is based.
Moments after disappearing from shot, Cobden lost control, causing the vehicle to smash into a wooden post and fly through the air.
A court has heard that Cobden ‘misjudged the Ferrari’s formidable power’ and ‘over-accelerated’ on the private access road which has an advisory speed limit of 10mph.
It is also alleged he may have failed to ‘properly take into account’ that the supercar – capable of reaching 60mph in less than four seconds and claimed to be ‘the closest you can get to an F1 car on the roads’ – was a left-hand drive.
Cobden, of Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, and who owns the company Toy Stor-age, denies one charge of causing death by careless driving.
The jury at Winchester Crown Court, Hampshire, today retired to consider its verdict and tonight police released the footage which shows the last moment Alex’s mother, Arabella Worth, saw him before the fatal crash at 8.30pm on August 22, 2016.
Alexander initially climbed in to have his photograph taken. However, businessman Matthew Cobden, 39, instead said he would take the teenager on a drive
Seconds from disaster: The supercar, capable of reaching 60mph in less than four seconds, is seen leaving the carpark
Moments after disappearing from shot, Cobden lost control, causing the vehicle to smash into a wooden post and fly through the air
Alex, from Kings Worthy, Winchester, was at the estate with his mother as her partner, Justin Smith, was delivering a car battery.
Mr Smith approached Cobden and asked if Alex could have his picture taken in the Ferrari, which was being kept by the businessman, along with around 170 other high performance cars, before it was to be sold at auction.
The court has heard evidence from the defence which claims an issue with the car meant only six of its 12 cylinders were working, and a sudden increase of speed was caused when the remaining cylinders kicked in. However, the prosecution refute this.
Cobden wept in front of jurors when he told them he was sorry he had not asked the child to wear a seatbelt.
The married father of one said he replays the tragic smash in his head ‘all the time’ but claims he did not have time to react in between pressing the accelerator and the car colliding with the post at the side of the narrow road.
The hearing has been told the F50 was travelling at ‘at least 40mph’ when it crashed.
This is the crumpled heap that remained of the Ferrari following the crash. Cobden wept in front of jurors when he told them he was sorry he had not asked the child to wear a seatbelt
The marked fence post was the first post to be hit launching the car into the air
Recalling the crash, Cobden told the trial: ‘I’m going along and I’ve got my foot on the accelerator and I put my foot on it and the next thing I’m not in the car. I think about that all the time and I wonder what actually happened there.
‘I don’t know because all I keep thinking is I would have done something about it, I would not have hit the post and that’s what frustrates me the most.’
However, prosecutor Thomas Wilkins suggested ‘the reality is you simply lost control’.
The jury will continue its deliberations tomorrow.
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