Tragic Albie's dad jailed after tractor reversed into son, 3

A FARMER who wept when cleared of killing his three-year-old by hitting him with a defective forklift-style vehicle has been jailed for a year.

- By Chris Riches

Albie Speakman suffered catastrophic crush injuries after his father reversed into him at the family farm.

On February 4, dad Neil Speakman, 39, was cleared of his son's gross negligence manslaughter.

But he was jailed yesterday at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court after earlier admitting breaching a section of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 for failing to "ensure the health and safety of Albie, so far as is reasonably practical".

In a statement that left Speakman in tears, Albie's mum Leah Bridge said: "It's almost impossible to comprehend that I am never going to experience the world in the same way I did, now that Albie is not here."

Speakman and Ms Bridge had separated shortly after Albie was born. Considering his sentence, Justice Charles Bourne KC explained there was "powerful" personal mitigation.