Mum reveals son's final words before fatal Spennymoor crash

Suzanne Bainbridge gave evidence at the inquest into her son’s death this afternoon (Tuesday, September 19).

Kelvin died on October 18, 2019, after a six-minute police chase when he was crushed under a police car after jumping from his own vehicle.

Read more: Cop driving police car which struck teen in fatal crash 'could not have stopped'

Ms Bainbridge told the inquest at Crook Coroners Court: “That was the last words he spoke to me, ‘I’m going to go to jail for this’.”

Kelvin Bainbridge (Image: FAMILY)

She was in the back of his Nissan Primera, which he had only bought a day earlier, during the chase.

In a statement read on the first day of the inquest on Monday (September 18) she said: “The whole chase felt like it lasted forever and felt like we were going really fast, but I couldn’t say how fast it was.

“We were speeding through town, and it was 2.30pm in the middle of the day. I was screaming to Kelvin to slow down.”

In questioning by Mr John Beggs, barrister for Durham Constabulary, Ms Bainbridge was asked why she got in the car with him when she knew he was disqualified from driving.

The family of Kelvin Bainbridge leaving Crook Coroner's Court following the second day of his inquest on Tuesday (September 19). (Image: NORTHERN ECHO)

“We were supposed to go in the bus,” she said.

When pressed by Mr Jamie Burton KC, barrister representing her family, whether she felt any influence over her son’s decisions in the months leading up to his death, she replied: “Very little.”

Mr Beggs continued: “On the 18th of October 2019 it was your son that decided to drive the Nissan. It was your son that decided to evade PC Jackson at the Black Horse Inn pub. It was your son that decided not to stop at any stage prior to when he decamped. It was your son that decided to jump from the moving car.

“Do you agree that a fair-minded person could only conclude that PC Jackson was just doing his job?”

Ms Bainbridge replied: “I don’t want to answer that.”

The scene of the incident. (Image: CHRIS BOOTH)

She said she believed PC Jackson, who was driving the car which smashed into her son, had “a vendetta” against him and was never away from her home, where Kelvin sometimes stayed.

But Mr Beggs KC argued back: “In fact PC Jackson only arrested your son – who has been arrested on numerous occasions – once on the 23rd of November 2017 – that’s two years in advance of this incident.”

At the end of an investigation by the police watchdog the IOPC, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said no one should be charged in relation with the incident.

Read next:

• Teen died in police chase on way home from finding out gender of his unborn baby
• Distressing moment teen hit by police car in fatal crash captured in dashcam footage​
• Family destroyed 'beyond repair' as woman jailed for murdering her sister

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Kelvin’s partner, who was carrying his unborn child, was in the passenger seat for the chase. They were returning home from a 20-week scan at University Hospital North Durham, where he had been “ecstatic” to learn they were having a boy, when an off-duty police officer spotted him.

Kelvin was “one of the most wanted men in the Spennymoor area”, the jury was told, and had been convicted for “no fewer than 45 criminal offences”.

He had previously been handed a jail term for punching a woman on the face, was disqualified from driving twice before reaching the legal driving age. He had also been convicted of drug offences and had been arrested several times for burglary and criminal damage.

The jury will make findings of fact as how to how Kelvin came about his death.