Heartbroken mum of boy, 3, killed by ‘farm vehicle’ dad was driving relives horrific moment she knew he’d died’
A HEARTBROKEN mum relived the moment she discovered her three-year-old son was killed after his dad ran him over with a farm vehicle.
Albie Speakman died when he was struck by a telehandler operated by his father Neil Speakman in Bury, Greater Manchester, on July 16, 2022.
A jury found the 39-year-old not guilty of gross negligence manslaughter at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court on Tuesday.
The farmer is set to be sentenced at a later date after admitting a health and safety offence.
Albie’s grief-stricken mum, Leah Bridge, has now spoken out about the tragedy.
The 31-year-old told the Manchester Evening News it “feels like it happened yesterday” and time has stood still since.
She said: “I haven’t moved on anywhere from it. I think ‘what might he have seen?
“What might he have said? Was he scared?’ I don’t know because I wasn’t there.”
Leah recalled the devastating moment she found out her three-year-old son had died.
A bowl of cornflakes he had eaten the morning of the horror remained on her kitchen table for months afterwards.
She relived dropping her toddler to his dad, who took care of Albie on alternate weekends, at around 9am.
Leah said she told her son “bye” in the car, but the day has become “a blur” in her mind.
She remembers Speakman phoning her in tears saying “it’s Albie, it’s Albie”.
“I just knew there was something drastically wrong,” recounted the mum.
“He said ‘you need to come to the hospital’. The first thing I said was ‘is he alive?’.
“He said ‘no, he’s dead… he’s dead’.”
Leah said even as she drove to the hospital with her mother she convinced herself Speakman was playing “a sick joke”.
Before tragedy struck, Speakman spent the morning out with his son and returned to the farm just before midday.
The 39-year-old began operating a telehandler to move bags of woodchips, as Albie played with their dogs in the garden.
But horror ensued when he failed to see his toddler behind the machinery as he reversed.
Albie was transported to Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital but sadly pronounced dead a short while later.
Speakman was charged with gross negligence manslaughter, which he denied, and was later cleared of at trial.
But, the dad admitted breaching the Health and Safety at Work Act, having “[failed] to ensure the health and safety of Albie, so far as is reasonably practical”.
He called the horror a “tragic accident” and told the court “I messed up, I made a mistake”.
After the trial ended, a “disappointed” Lead said she felt Albie had “been let down”.
‘JUST KEEP EXISTING’
Leah has since welcomed another son, Ebon, but admitted she “didn’t look at him for ages” because of painful memories of Albie.
She has given her 19-month-old son the middle name Albie, to honour her little boy.
The mum worked at her son’s nursery, and has since bravely returned to her job – but still can’t face going into Albie’s set toddler room.
Staff have added a bench in their garden, Albie’s Buddy Bench, and hung a star on the wall in his memory.
Leah has also vacuum-packed the three-year-old’s clothes and toys to keep them exactly as they were the day he died.
She carries one of his unwashed jumpers with her every day.
“Wherever I go, I take it with me,” she said.
On coping with her grief, Leah explained there is no choice but to “just keep existing”.
The 31-year-old has thrown herself into work, clocking in six-days-a-week.
And this is a significantly scaled back routine compared to her seven-day-a-week combination of four jobs to stay distracted.
However, this has left the new mum feeling racked with a new sense of guilt over not spending time with her son Ebon.
“He always comes to the cemetery with me,” Leah explained.
The mum is still unsure how she will tell her son about the tragedy when he’s older.
Parenting Ebon has presented Leah with different challenges.
The nursery worker told how in her mind Albie will forever be three-years-old, but he would be turning six this year.
“Albie is Ebon’s big brother, but soon Ebon will be three, and then Ebon will be four, and Albie will still be three. It doesn’t make sense,” she said.
Leah has also become riddled with anxiety over Ebon’s safety, who she described as “the sole reason why I keep going”.
‘I’M COMPLETELY BROKEN…MY WORLD HAS BEEN DESTROYED’
In a statement Leah wrote to be read in court, she said paid tribute to Albie and reflected on the life-changing loss.
“My world has been shattered into a million irreparable pieces, and no one can fix it or understand what I am going through,” she said.
“There are absolutely no words to describe how I’m feeling – pain, sadness, heartbreak, they don’t even come close. I’m completely broken, my world has been destroyed, and time has stood still for me, yet everything around me seems to keep moving.
“It’s been two-and-a-half years since Albie was taken from us, and believe me when I say, it does not get any easier. It’s like no one can see how broken I am and how broken my life is, forever.
“There will always be darkness within my life. Behind every smile, or laugh and I feel guilty that I am still alive when Albie isn’t. I am not religious, and I do not believe in God but I have prayed more times that I can count – prayed that I could swap places with Albie.
“Albie is my entire life, he saved me when he came into this world, and I am devastated that I could not do the same for him. Everything I did was for Albie, I dedicated my life to him.
“I am so scared that I will start to forget his voice or the things he said. I have already forgotten his smell and how it felt to have his little hands on my face.
“It’s almost impossible to comprehend that I am never going to experience the world in the same way I did, now that Albie is not here. When I think ahead to my future – I just don’t see a time where I will be truly happy again, and that is a very scary thought.
“It is like I am just going through the motions waiting until I die. I am heartbroken that Albie’s baby brother will never get to meet him or play with him. Albie would have made the best big brother in the world. And it will be my promise to Albie, to keep his memory alive for as long as I remain on this earth.
“Each day the pain and despair continue, as it sinks in more and more that Albie is never coming back. Knowing I’ll never watch Albie play with his toys again or tuck him in his bed at night.
“Albie, you are my everything boy and I am your everything girl. The only thing that keeps me going is thinking that every new day is one day closer to me seeing you again.
“I love you endlessly, my sunshine boy.”