Man denies encouraging brother to race before fatal crash

A man said he did not encourage his brother to drive dangerously and denied racing moments before a crash that killed a father-of-two and seriously injured his nine-year-old son.

Rhys Jenkins, from Deuddwr, Powys, died at the scene on the A483 near Welshpool in November 2024. His son, Ioan, was airlifted to hospital in Liverpool with serious injuries.

Umar Ben Yusaf, 35, and Abubakr Ben Yusaf, 31, deny causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

Abubakr Ben Yusaf also denies a charge of causing death while driving uninsured.

Umar Ben Yusaf told Mold Crown Court that he and his brother had both been working as locum optometrists and shared a flat in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, but were travelling back to their family home in Manchester in separate cars on the evening of 16 November 2024.

Umar Ben Yusaf said he had left the flat first and did not know what time his brother had left, adding they had not been in contact on the journey nor had they been tracking each other.

Asked if there had been any plan to race his brother back to Manchester, he said no.

He was reminded about Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) evidence at the Newtown bypass in Powys, which showed that his blue Audi A4 was about six seconds behind his brother's red BMW X3, but he said he had not seen his brother's vehicle.

"Were you racing at that point?" asked his barrister Sean Minihan.

"I was not racing at any time," he replied.

He agreed he had overtaken some vehicles on the journey, but said, "every overtake I did was in a safe manner".

Umar Ben Yusaf accepted, having seen dashcam footage, that he had overtaken a vehicle belonging to witness Emma Crabtree 20 seconds after his brother, but said he had not seen his brother overtake ahead of him.

He did not know how fast he was travelling himself, because he was "concentrating on the road and completing the manoeuvre", he added.

He described seeing a car ahead of him "moving side to side", just after he overtook a transit van, adding he saw its brake lights, but the car "didn't gain control... it hit the verge and was snapped over to the right, travelling sideways".

"I heard a really loud bang... I don't remember seeing the car hitting another car... It happened in a matter of seconds."

Umar Ben Yusaf said he was "scared" when he saw the car moving and he started slowing down.

Despite seeing the vehicle from the distance from it he was, he "could not see what it was".

He went on to describe avoiding debris in the road and said at the point when the vehicle started going sideways, he realised it was a red BMW and it "made me even more scared".

He stopped his car, walked towards the collision and saw his brother sitting in the BMW, adding they made "eye contact".

"I said 'stay where you are, don't move'."

He then went over to Jenkins' vehicle and, seeing the driver's side was very damaged, he went to the passenger side and called for a response, but there was none.

Breaking down in tears in court, Umar Ben Yusaf recalled asking someone close by to help, who carried an unconscious child out of the passenger seat and put them down on the grass verge.

More people came, he said, and he returned to check on his brother, finding that he had left the BMW and was sitting in his Audi passenger seat.

"He didn't look like he was in a good state.

"He appeared confused, out of sync, he didn't know what was happening or where he was.

"I thought, 'I need to get him seen to, I don't know extent of his injuries.'

"I was in shock and panic," he said.

Umar Ben Yusaf said he had not called 999, but had driven towards Welshpool, calling his older brother on his hands-free mobile phone to say he was heading to a hospital.

"I told him what happened. He realised I was in a panic and tried to calm me down."

He then parked at a Tesco store and went inside to use the toilet.

Umar Ben Yusaf said his older brother said they should return to the scene where there would be ambulances.

He was asked about how his car was then stopped by a PCSO as they tried to go back, and said he had told her the accident had been caused by debris and mud on the road.

Shortly after, he texted his older brother to say he thought he would get arrested.

He was then asked why he later gave a "no comment" police interview and said it was on the advice of the duty solicitor, adding he thought it was "correct" to "trust a professional in their expertise".