A hit-and-run driver who mowed down a five-months-pregnant care home worker and killed her baby boy has been jailed for 13 years.

Renju Joseph, 31, was hit by a car speeding through a zebra crossing. The driver, Ashir Shahid, 20, was involved in the accident at Bamber Bridge, close to Preston, Lancashire.

The Toyota Prius was moving between 58mph and 71mph, according to what was revealed in court at Preston Crown Court, in an area limited to 30mph, under dark and wet conditions.

Following the incident which occurred on Station Road on the evening of September 29, Mrs. Joseph was rushed to the hospital. An emergency C-section was performed to try and save her unborn son, Olive.

Tragically, her child was born that evening but survived for just a few hours before passing away.

Sentencing, Judge Ian Unsworth KC said: ‘Olive’s life lasted five hours and 38 minutes. He did not live to see dawn. His mother never saw him alive. 

‘His life was snubbed out before it really began.’

In her statement read to the court, Mrs. Joseph expressed her heartache, saying, ‘I will never get to meet my baby, be a mummy to him or watch him grow up.’

Sam, Ashir’s 17-year-old brother, was in the front passenger seat at the time and was later discovered to have created a rap about the incident.

Mrs Joseph was walking slightly behind two female colleagues on the crossing at about 7.50pm as they headed to work a night shift at a local care home.

A motorist travelling in the opposite direction said the Prius driver seemed to increase speed about 15 metres away from the crossing and then swerved from the two pedestrians in front.

The pregnant woman was hit and ‘thrown into the air for quite some distance’ before she tumbled and rolled into his car, said the witness.

Prosecutors said the driving of Ashir Shahid before the collision also ‘left a lot to be desired’.

Video clips recovered from his mobile phone and that of his front seat passenger, younger brother Sam Shahid, 17, showed them laughing and singing to music as the car is driven erratically and at speed.

Sam Shahid was also seen to put his feet and upper body out of the window while the driver removes both hands from the wheel at times and makes gun gestures.

Minutes after the collision the Toyota was abandoned in a side street and covered with a sheet by the defendants, before others moved the vehicle on to the back of flatbed truck and dumped it in Farnworth, Greater Manchester.

Ashir Shahid was arrested days later and made no comment when interviewed, but when his phone was examined it revealed that on the night of the collision he made an online search for ‘charge for hit and run human’.

A video clip on his Snapchat account also showed him singing along to the Shaggy song It Wasn’t Me and laughing.

Voice note recordings were also discovered of Sam Shahid rapping: ‘Ran that b**** over, baby got packed. She still not woke up, she still asleep.’

Ashir Shahid, of Windsor Road, Walton le Dale, Preston, pleaded guilty in June to causing death and serious injury by dangerous driving.

On Friday, he was also banned from driving for 15 years and one month, and must pass an extended retest.

Sam Shahid, also of Windsor Road, was detained for three years after he pleaded guilty to assisting an offender.

Sentencing, Judge Ian Unsworth KC said Ashir Shahid’s acceleration in the moments before the crash was ‘akin to what you may see on a Formula 1 race track’.

He said: ‘Your driving was nothing less than appalling. You engaged in a prolonged and persistent course of dangerous driving.

‘Your speed was significantly in excess of the speed limit and was highly inappropriate for the prevailing road conditions.’

Mrs Joseph spent a fortnight in a coma before she learned of the death of her son, the court heard.

She and her nurse husband, Nyjil Jonn, had planned a gender reveal party at a baby shower for family and friends on October 2.

One of her last memories before the collision was buying a dress to wear for the occasion, she said in a victim personal statement read out to the court.

Mrs Joseph said: ‘Everything has been ruined by that one night and the callous and reckless actions of those two people in that car. My life will never by the same again.

‘I will never get to meet my baby, be a mummy to him or watch him grow up. They have taken my first child away from me and I will never get him back.’

Mr Joseph said it was ‘incomprehensible’ to see their son placed on the lap of his unconscious wife as she fought for her life.

He said he was scared for the future of the couple, both originally from India, and the possible long-term impact on his wife.

Mrs Joseph suffered life-changing injuries including a bleed to the brain, a cracked spinal cord and fractures to her pelvis, ribs and leg.

She has had to learnt to walk again but struggles to stand for long periods of time, the court heard.

Jonathan Duffy, defending Ashir Shahid, who has no previous convictions, said: ‘Of course he knew that he had struck a pedestrian but didn’t know at the time how seriously injured Mrs Joseph was.

‘He deeply regrets his behaviour immediately after the offence, All he can say is that he panicked and was in shock.’

Shahid had expressed feelings of shame, guilt and remorse in a letter to the court, he said.

Fellow defence barrister Jennifer Devans-Tamakloe, said Sam Shahid explained to her that rapping about something as serious as these events ‘makes it easier for him to cope with, as odd as that sounds’.

She said: ‘While Sam clearly has difficulties of his own, he has ambitions. He says he wants to join the Army.’

Sam Shahid had six prior convictions for 13 offences including burglary and vehicle theft, the court was told.

Judge Unsworth told the defendants: ‘You seemingly have no moral compass. Throughout these proceedings you have sat with your heads down as if in shame. You have no shame.’

He noted how they both ‘disappeared into the night like cowards’ following the collision and then shortly after acted with ‘breathtaking coolness’ as they began a cover-up operation.

He told them they had ‘not shown a care in the world for anyone and anything around you’ as they careered through residential streets at dangerously high speeds.

Judge Unsworth said: ‘Your arrogant, selfish and shameless actions put multiple people at risk including yourselves.

‘Neither of you have a shred of remorse for your involvement that evening.’

He told Sam Shahid: ‘You sang utterly vile rap songs in which you glorified the events of that evening and speak in utterly despicable ways of Renju and her dead son Olive. It defies belief.

‘You have an ingrained criminality and are someone who at the age of 17 seems to revel in and take pleasure from it.’

Following sentence, the Josephs’ lawyer, Cathy Leach – of JMW Solicitors, said: ‘The enormity of the tragic effects of the accident and the injuries sustained, are something Renju and Nyjil will live with daily.

‘Their lives will never be the same. They wish to retain their privacy but have specifically asked us, as their lawyers, to pass on their thanks be passed on to the many people who have been magnificent in their response to the tragedy.

‘They specially want to mention the other road users and people who were witnesses to the terrible accident who took the trouble gave evidence to the police and the court.’

Det Chief Insp Andy Fallows, of Lancashire Constabulary’s major investigation team, said: ‘My thoughts first and foremost today are with Renju and family. They have been through the most appalling ordeal and my heart goes out to them.

‘They have shown the most incredible dignity and courage since this tragic collision and throughout these proceedings.

‘In contrast Ashir Shahid and his co-defendant have shown nothing but arrogance and a lack of remorse for what they have done.’