Manchester Evening News
06 October 2010
A boy paralysed by a hit-and-run driver is set to finally receive a potential multi-million compensation payout after an eight-year legal battle.
Daniel Hennessy was just five when he was mowed down and left for dead by illegal driver Sajid Hussain in Rochdale in 2002.
A High Court hearing ruled Daniel, now 13, will receive 60 per cent of the settlement paid for by the Motor Insurers' Bureau which awards compensation to the victims of uninsured drivers.
Christopher Wilson-Smith QC, barrister for the Hennessy family, told the court the decision had been made to ensure Daniel had as comfortable life as possible.
He said: "In the light of the limited evidence available, it seems to be right and in the claimant's best interests that the proposed compromise should be approved."
He added that many questions in the case remained unanswered such as the speed of the car at the time of the incident and whether Hussain could have done anything to avoid hitting Daniel.
Daniel, who lives in Dublin, was visiting his grandparents when the crash took place on Belfield Road, Rochdale.
He suffered serious head and spinal injuries and a collapsed lung and faces spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair.
Hussain, who was 16 at the time of the crash, paid just £76 to his victim after winning a legal bid to overturn a compensation order of £2,555.
He was given a two-year driving ban.
But just months later he ploughed into 67-year-old lollipop woman Audrey Chadwick - breaking her jaw, cheekbone, pelvis and forearm - and was sentenced to 18 months in a young offenders institution.
In 2007, Hussain, from Rochdale, was then jailed for nine months after being convicted of four counts of driving while disqualified and without insurance.
Daniel could receive a multi-million pound compensation package, with the amount to be decided following evidence from medical experts.
A date for the hearing has yet to be decided.