Van driver admits killing King’s College student in central London crash

A man has pleaded guilty to killing a university student after he struck her with his van in central London.

Christopher Jackson, 27, of Southampton, appeared at the Old Bailey and pleaded guilty to causing death by dangerous driving and two counts of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

He admitted the charges with his head bowed and continued to look towards the floor for the majority of the hearing.

Prosecutor Fiona Robertson said Aalia Mahomed’s family and the two surviving victims are ‘anxious’ for Jackson to be sentenced before the anniversary of the incident.

Judge Philip Katz KC said: ‘It is inevitably going to be a substantial custodial sentence.’

Jessica Clarke, defending, said: ‘Unlike many cases of death by dangerous driving which involve excessive speed, alcohol and drugs, this involves none of that. It was a tragic accident.’

Jackson, who was remanded in custody, will be sentenced at the same court on March 6.

Clarke also told the court Jackson has three young children with his fiancée and has been trying to ‘earn as much money’ as he can for his family before the sentencing.

Mahomed, 20, who was studying at King’s College London, died at the scene on the Strand on March 18 last year.

Her family remembered her as a ‘bright, kind and beautiful soul’ who was killed while eating lunch outside.

She was in her second year of a physics and philosophy degree, according to the university’s website.

A court heard previously that the van collided with a metal gate, knocking it off its hinges, before hitting the bench where Ms Mahomed was sitting.

Two other people, Irem Yoldas and Yamin Belmessous, were injured in the incident.

One politics student, who asked not to be named, told Metro at the time of the accident:‘I was with some friends near the bench. There was a gust of wind, and we got cold in that spot, so we moved. 

‘Seconds later, a van came out and hit a group where we had been. A woman who saw what happened was hysterical. A woman on the ground was holding her head. She was still breathing. 

‘There were three people altogether across the path injured. It was carnage. I escaped death by seconds.’

She described how the driver of the vehicle got out and went to help the injured. 

She told Metro: ‘He was saying, ‘I don’t know how this could have happened.” He was frantic.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.