The 8-second video of the stunt, which went viral on various social media sites including Snapchat and Facebook, begins with the trucker filming the clip asking the child “you alright there, lad?”. The boy then replies “yeah” as his face turns away from the road towards the man in the passenger seat.
Before the end of the short clip, the man then urges the boy to “lift off, lift off” and utters a swear word.
Back in 2021, the Belfast Telegraph reported that the Police Service of Northern Ireland had said that the footage showed a boy “clearly under the age of gaining a valid driving licence driving a lorry while in the presence of an adult.”
At the time, a local councillor also described the stunt as “reckless” and “careless” and added that the person responsible should be held to account.
The police were first made aware of the video from several worried members of the public. Officers then came forward to ask anyone who recognised the boy, or the voice of the man in the passenger seat, to contact them.
The police eventually managed to identify the lorry driver, and he appeared at Dungannon Magistrates Court in connection with the case in April 2021.
The Irish Times reported at the time that the trucker had been accused of cruelty to children and permitting driving without an HGV licence or insurance.
PSNI asking Does anyone recognise the child driving the lorry down the M1! Like feck me
Posted by Popaganda on Thursday, 10 September 2020
In addition, the man was charged with three counts of aiding and abetting dangerous driving, plus single counts of aiding and abetting driving while disqualified as well as permitting and causing no insurance.
On top of that, the lorry driver faced charges of dangerous driving and having no insurance himself.
A police sergeant from Northern Ireland Police Service’s Traffic Branch told the court he believed the accused was connected to all charges. District Judge Michael Ranaghan remanded the defendant on continuing bail, and listed the case for mention the next month.
However, the case dragged on and another hearing was held was recently as this week.
Since we last reported on the case in April 2021, it has been found that the HGV driver actually allowed a child to take control of his lorry while it was on the road twice. One of the boys was 8-years-old, while the other was 2 years younger.
The BBC states that in June 2022, the lorry driver pleaded not guilty to all charges at Dungannon Crown Court. However, in a review in December 2022, a defence barrister requested that his client be re-arraigned on 3 counts – child cruelty, dangerous driving and aiding and abetting a child to drive dangerously.
“A prosecution barrister advised the guilty pleas were acceptable and the remaining matters could be left on the books,” reads the BBC report.
At the court hearing this week, the judge told the lorry driver:
“You clearly placed these children and other road users at very considerable risk of harm. Your actions demonstrated extreme irresponsibility. You allowed these boys to drive and you filmed this, placing one of the videos online, which led to a police investigation.”
The trucker is already serving a suspended sentence that will be extended by a further 2 years. In addition, he was handed a 16-month driving ban and ordered to complete 240 hours of community service.
Photo: Chris Potter, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons (credit to stockmonkeys.com) / screenshot from Popoganda Facebook
