Deptford driver guilty of killing cyclist Olatunji Adeyanju (From News Shopper)

Deptford driver guilty of killing cyclist Olatunji Adeyanju

1:13pm Monday 18th March 2013 in News By Mark Chandler

A 28-YEAR-OLD driver who mowed down a teenage cyclist in Deptford after speeding through a red light has been found guilty of killing the boy.

Barry Normah, of Watergate Street, Deptford, had denied causing death by dangerous driving but was convicted of the offence by an Old Bailey jury today (March 18).

Olatunji Adeyanju, a former deputy head boy at Addey and Stanhope School, died after being hit by a car on Deptford Church Street on March 23 last year.

The member of Deptford's Second Wave youth centre, known to friends as TJ, suffered major head, chest and abdominal injuries. He died at King's College Hospital later that evening.

Pedestrian Claire Ridge was standing beside him at the pedestrian crossing before he was hit by a silver Audi A3 at around 5pm.

She told the Old Bailey: "A boy on a bike came to my right hand side. He crossed the road - the red man was still showing but the cars had stopped, the traffic lights were red.

"Then I saw this car approaching really quickly and I thought 'what is this car doing - it was my turn to cross, it was the pedestrian's turn to cross'.

"I thought it was going to stop but it slammed straight into the boy. The boy flew to the other side of the road and crashed to the floor."

Jurors heard that the driver of the car initially failed to stop, continuing along Deptford Church Street, before turning around at the traffic lights and coming back to the scene.

He paused for a short while before eventually driving off again. Police later found the Audi dumped in nearby Watergate Road at around 7pm.

Normah will be sentenced on a date to be set.