Dean Barnes died after the motorbike being driven by Adam Norman crashed
The family of a teenager killed while he rode as a passenger on a stolen bike being chased by its owner do not hold the rider of the bike responsible for the boy’s death.
Dean Barnes, 16, had been a pillion passenger on a stolen motorbike being driven by Adam Norman when the bike crashed in Stockport. Homeowner Callum Duncan had followed the pair after they stole motorbikes from his shed.
Mr Duncan, 29, went on trial accused of causing death by dangerous driving, and was found not guilty. Norman, who ‘almost thought of Mr Barnes as his son’, was found guilty of the same offence. He has now been sentenced to 16-and-a-half years in prison.
His sentencing hearing at Minshull Street Crown Court heard that the Barnes family hold Mr Duncan responsible. But Judge Neil Usher said: “Mr Duncan did as anyone who has been a victim of burglaries would. He got into his car and he chased you, attempting to recover his possessions.”
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He claimed that the Barnes family were ‘very sadly in error’ in blaming Mr Duncan. The judge continued: “You, Mr Norman, as the jury rightly found, were the only person responsible for Dean Barnes’ death. No-one else.”
Judge Usher said Norman had taken an ‘idiotic, dangerous and ultimately fatal gamble’ by entering a main road ‘blindly’. “In doing so, you gambled not only with your own life, which I suppose you are entitled to do, but you were a 34-year-old grown man,” the judge told Norman. Speaking of Barnes, he added: “You had no right to gamble with his life.”
Norman, 37, Barnes and a third man, Alexander Riley, 21, were out in the early hours preparing to commit a burglary at a house in Harewood Grove, Reddish. They spent ‘some considerable time’ planning the break-in, prosecutor Phil Barnes said.
They had been tipped off that three off-road motorbikes were being stored in a shed at the property. A drill and bolt croppers were used to break into the shed, at about 6.30am on January 24, 2023. Barnes took a small Yamaha PW50, commonly known as a ‘Pee Wee’, Riley rode a larger Kawasaki and Norman took the largest bike, a white and black Husqvarna.
The Husqvarna belonged to Mr Duncan, and the two other bikes belonged to his family and friends. Having heard the break-in, Mr Duncan followed the trio in his Golf GTI.
Shortly after realising they were being chased, Barnes left the ‘Pee Wee’ behind and got on the back of the Husqvarna with Norman. Riley fled down Wharfdale Road followed by Mr Duncan. Neither of the bikes were suitable for use on the road.
Riley turned right onto Gorton Road and returned to Brinnington. Norman instead tried to ride straight, across two lanes of traffic, onto Ainsdale Grove, a residential road opposite. “Sadly for Dean Barnes, Adam Norman didn’t make it,” Mr Barnes told the trial. A driver ‘doing absolutely nothing wrong’ came along Gorton Road from the left.
Norman clipped her car, and both men fell from the bike. Norman was ‘lucky’, Mr Barnes said, and was able to walk away from the crash. But Dean Barnes fell and hit a parked car, and was killed ‘instantly’.
Mr Duncan stopped before the collision and was not accused of colliding with the bike being driven by Norman. He went on trial accused of causing death by dangerous driving, and was found not guilty.
Giving evidence at his trial, Mr Duncan said he had heard ‘bikes starting up’ that morning. He told jurors: “I looked out my window and saw three males in the road on my bikes. I realised my bikes had been taken, I kept three off-road bikes in my shed.
“I went downstairs, found my keys, put my sliders on and a coat and got in my car. I was curious to see where they were going.” Mr Duncan said he stopped at the junction prior to the crash because it was a ‘busy main road’. He denied trying to ‘ram’ the bike, saying: “Otherwise I wouldn’t have braked in the road.”
He said he didn’t see the fatal collision, adding: “I just heard a bang. I can’t really explain how I felt, I’ve never felt that way since.”
Norman fled the scene of the crash and went into ‘hiding’ for five months. Police later discovered he had been living in a flat in Brinnington under a false name. He was eventually arrested on June 23, 2023, and replied ‘no comment’ to questions in his police interview.
Norman, described by the judge as a ‘career criminal’, was granted bail but carried on committing crime. He was part of a gang who travelled from Manchester to Devon and Cornwall to commit crime.
On May 3 last year, three masked men carrying crowbars and a screwdriver forced entry to an O2 phone shop in Penzance, but left empty handed after becoming stuck. The following day, up to £70,000 worth of damage and loss was caused to a Three phone store in Taunton after two masked men entered by cutting through the roof and then stole mobile phones.
Norman’s DNA was later discovered on a glove in one of the vans used to travel down south. Defending Norman, Paul Hodgkinson said of the Barnes family: “They don’t hold Mr Norman responsible for the death of their 16-year boy. I respectfully submit that is something that should be weighed in the sentencing balance.” Mr Hodgkinson said that Norman had taken Barnes ‘under his wing’ and ‘almost thought of Mr Barnes as his son’.
Barnes’ family did not submit a victim impact statement to the court for the sentencing hearing. Paying tribute to him following his death, a loved one said: “He was such a dare devil but sweet boy, and he will be truly missed on the estate.
“There’s not a day that will go by where no one won’t think about him because he was so loved by his family, friends and the big community. Another young life taken far too soon, we’ll see you on the other side of the stars Deano.”
Norman, of no fixed address, was sentenced to 14-and-a-half years after he was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving and admitted burglary. He had a further two years added to his sentence for the two burglaries in Penzance and Taunton, offences he admitted. Riley, of Blackberry Lane, Brinnington, pleaded guilty to burglary in relation to the theft of motorbikes. He will be sentenced at a later date.
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Dean Barnes had previously been convicted for his part in a plot to steal a takeaway owner’s Mercedes, before the man was run over and killed. Barnes was convicted following an investigation into the death of Mohammed Islam in Romiley, Stockport in January, 2021.
He was charged with conspiracy to steal. His co-defendant, who was 15 at the time of conviction and cannot be named for legal reasons, was jailed for four years and nine months after admitting manslaughter.
Mr Islam, an ‘influential and inspiring father and husband’, who owned the Marple Spice restaurant, was run over and killed by his own car as he tried to stop his vehicle being stolen.
The boy convicted of manslaughter was part of a gang of thieves who had been out looking for a car to steal. Barnes, 15 at the time, was part of that gang. He was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court in November 2021 to a 12-month detention and training order after admitting his part in the crime.
