Kirkby driver jailed for killing student in high-speed police chase through city centre

Witnesses said Joshua Gregory was "going like a rocket" when he ran a red light and struck 31-year-old Oshada Jayasundera, hurling him 46 metres down Huntingdon Street, in the early hours of December 13, last year.

The collision "sounded like a bomb going off" and the Nottingham Trent University student was killed instantly by "catastrophic" head and chest injuries, said prosecutor Richard Thatcher.

Gregory collided with a central reservation a short distance away and fled.

Victoria Centre security guards helped stop him but he wriggled free and made a second attempt to run before he was recaptured.

He denied drinking alcohol, refused a breath test, and claimed Mr Jayasundera had stepped out in front of him.

Nottingham Crown Court heard how Gregory borrowed a Ford Focus from the car dealership where he worked without his boss's permission and had been driving around Nottingham and Derbyshire for ten hours.

He was followed by police at 3.10am after swerving on Sherwood Rise. He stopped, but when officers got out he accelerated away.

He was spotted again in Sneinton and pursued the wrong way up one-way streets before heading back into the city centre where the collision happened.

His younger brother described him as a "humble, agreeable and peace-loving" man who "could have been an invaluable asset to any country he lived in."

"He was very close to our hearts,” he said. “Me and my family will never recover from this loss."

Mr Jayasundera came from Sri Lanka to study project management and was walking home with friends from a birthday party at the time.

Gregory, aged 28, has one “highly relevant” previous conviction for driving under the influence of cannabis in 2022.

Andrew Wesley, mitigating, said Gregory had apologised and his experience of prison would be particularly difficult for him.

He had a “problematic” childhood and his mental health was affected by a serious assault when he was 14 which had sparked suicide attempts.

Gregory, of Westfield Road, Kirkby, admitted causing death by dangerous driving, failing to stop after an accident, and driving without insurance, after initially denying the offences. He was for nine years and disqualified for 12 years.