Two teenagers were making a ‘determined attempt’ to leave the Holme Wood area when their quad bike was driven off the road killing one of them and seriously injuring the other, a jury was told today.

Jason Pitter QC said the bike was ‘pushing hard’ at up to 60mph and had all the hall-marks of trying to leave when it was struck from behind by a Ford Focus driven by Jordan Glover.

The trial at Bradford Crown Court has heard that Rahees Mahmood, 18, the passenger on the bike, died from catastrophic head injuries at the scene of the crash on Broadstone Way on the afternoon of June 3 last year. The rider, Tommy-Lee Haigh, 19, was hospitalised with multiple fractures.

Glover, 24, from the Thorpe Edge area of Bradford, pleads not guilty to murder; manslaughter as an alternative count; causing grievous bodily harm with intent; and criminal damage. He has pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving.

Today, Mr Pitter, counsel for the prosecution, made his closing speech to the jury.

He said that Glover set off in the car straight away after the quad bike which ‘made an almost immediate retreat.’

“They could not if they tried have made a more determined attempt to leave the area,” he said of the teenagers.

He questioned why Glover needed to drive in the way he did if he just wanted to see them off the estate.

“The reality is that within just a few seconds they would have reached exactly where he wanted them to go,” Mr Pitter stated.

“He could have just sat back and watched them disappear up the road.”

The prosecution alleges there was no loss of control on Glover’s part when he caught the bike up and pushed it along.

Defence counsel, Sam Green QC, said in his closing speech that Glover did not intend to cause really serious injury or death.

It would be frightening to see men with a pitchfork and a machete turning up on an unlicensed quad bike in balaclavas in an area where family members lived.

Glover had a near head-on crash just before the collision following a fast overtaking manoeuvre. Both the quad bike and the Focus had narrowly avoided hitting an oncoming vehicle in the preceding seconds.

A witness had spoken of the Ford Focus wobbling and fishtailing in the moments before the collision. That strengthened Glover’s defence that the crash was accidental.

The jury is expected to begin considering its verdicts tomorrow morning.