A HORRIFIED dad sobbed as he recounted the moment he ran over and killed his three-year-old son with a “broken” farm vehicle, a court heard.

Little Albie suffered catastrophic head injuries in the horror at 39-year-old dad Neil Speakman’s farm in Bury, Greater Manchester.

The collision happened in a yard next to a small garden area at the front of the farmhouse in Bentley Hall Road, Walshaw.

Albie had been playing unsupervised in a small garden when he wandered into the “unfenced” area where Speakman was working.

Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court was told that Neil was driving a borrowed telehandler machine that was missing a wing mirror amid various other defects.

Speakman denies gross negligence manslaughter.

Giving evidence at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court today, Speakman told jurors that because the telehandler had a missing wing mirror he would “check profusely” for blind spots but he did not see his son.

He said: “I am always careful in what I do. He was my little boy.”

Wiping away tears, he added: “I shouldn’t have to do this. It’s f****** not fair.”

Asked to describe what happened next, he said: “You felt a bump instantly. I had travelled 10cm, 20cm…I stopped instantly. It was a split second.

“I looked right and saw his legs, and jumped off.”

Speakman told his barrister Alexander Leach KC that he was “more than competent” at driving his neighbour’s telehandler, which he said he had used “200/300 times easily”.

He said: “I looked over both shoulders a number of times, I have gone fully round, 180 degrees.

“If I thought Albie was even an inch into that yard I would never have moved that vehicle. If I thought for one second he was not on that grass I would not even have moved that stupid thing.”

He told prosecutor John Elvidge KC, cross-examining: “It was a tragic accident. I made a mistake.”

Mr Elvidge said: “Tell us what you did to stop Albie coming close to a moving vehicle before he was struck by the telehandler.”

Speakman replied: “I checked every possible blind spot. I checked he was not there. I couldn’t have checked more.

“I profusely checked. It was not humanly possible to check even more, Why would I risk my boy’s f****** safety?”

Asked why he had not put Albie inside the farmhouse, he said: “It was 33 degrees. He wanted to play outside with his dogs. It was his family home.”

Mr Elvidge said: “Is it your position that Albie aged three know to manage his own safety on the farm?”

Speakman said: “He knew dangers. I shouldn’t have left him in the garden. We all know that. Is it truly exceptional bad behaviour, neglectful behaviour? No.

“I messed up, I shouldn’t have left him there.”

‘RUINED MY LIFE’

The dad continued: “It’s one bit of human error for a split second which has ruined my life.”

Speakman said that “seconds before” the collision he had seen his son sat in the garden playing with the family dogs.

He said: “I have looked behind to the best of my ability. Not for a second would I risk his life. He is the best thing that’s ever happened…”

The prosecution alleges Speakman disregarded a warning in 2020 from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) about the use of another piece of farm machinery with a lifting bucket attached.

A letter was said to have been sent by the HSE to warn him of potentially fatal consequences after the emergence of a video posted on social media.

It showed a teenager inside the bucket in the air as the defendant moves the vehicle and is heard to say: “I’m going to drop you”.

But Speakman denied he had received any such letter and told the court the family had had problems with missing post.

Speakman has pleaded guilty to a breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act in failing to ensure, so far as reasonably practical, the health and safety of Albie.

The trial continues.