Archie Battersbee‘s mother and her older son ran another man off the road in a ‘revenge attack’ just weeks after the 12-year-old schoolboy’s life support was switched off, a court has heard.
Hollie Dance, 50, and Thomas Summers, 26, are accused of chasing a man for 13 miles between Southend and Basildon, Essex, in two cars in October 2022.
Dance, who was driving a BMW, forced the man to crash into a tree before her son then drove into him, propelling him into a bush, Southend Crown Court heard.
Her younger son Archie died on August 6, 2022, following an accident due to a failed prank which left him brain dead.
She had mounted a high profile but unsuccessful court battle to keep her son’s life support machine switched on.
The prosecution alleges the ‘revenge attack’ followed an earlier incident in Southend, when the alleged victim helped break up a fight between four females.
The jury was told that a female involved in the fight was Dance’s daughter, who reportedly said she was going to involve her brother.
A third man, Rhys Bentley, was also said to have been involved. The defendants have denied causing grievous bodily harm with intent at their trial.
The court heard the alleged victim made a ‘frantic’ phone call to Essex Police during the incident, which ended when his car crashed on Uppermayne, Essex.
Hollie Dance, 50, (pictured) and Thomas Summers, 26, are accused of chasing a man for 13 miles between Southend and Basildon, Essex, in two cars in October 2022
Archie died on August 6, 2022, following an accident due to a failed prank which left him brain dead
Summers (pictured) is alleged to have propelled the alleged victim into a bush with his car
Officers arrived to find the man’s ‘disfigured Peugeot, crumpled and caved at the front’, prosecutor Richard Scott said.
They found the injured man ‘some 200 metres’ from the suspected original point of impact, he added.
His injuries included a dislocated shoulder, a fractured shoulder blade and cuts and bruises ‘across his body’. He had to undergo surgery, the court heard.
Mr Scott said: ‘They dealt with their grievance, say the prosecution, by stalking [the complainant’s] car before attacking him and his car while his car was stationary at a red traffic signal in Southend.
‘The prosecution say that Thomas Summers was directly involved in that attack, as well as Rhys Bentley, a family friend of Mr Summers and Mrs Dance.
‘He was followed to Basildon, where he was run off the road by the car Hollie Dance was driving and then driven into by the car Thomas Summers was driving and in which Rhys Bentley was still sitting.’
Dance allegedly waited near the scene of the altercation and began following the complainant in her BMW.
When he stopped at a red light in Kenilworth Gardens, said Mr Scott, a second car – a Toyota, the prosecution says had been rented by Summers – pulled up in front of him so he couldn’t drive off.
The occupants got out brandishing a baseball bat, said the prosecutor, and began attacking the complainant’s car, smashing one of his windows.
He drove up the kerb and around them, the jury was told, triggering ‘a pursuit’.
The Toyota pulled up alongside the complainant’s car and one of the occupants continued to swing the baseball bat at it.
Summers went to the hospital every day to visit Archie and tried to get him to respond
Archie with his mother (left), brother Tom Summers and sister Lauren Summers
The complainant drove onto the A127 ‘in an attempt to get away,’ said Mr Scott, adding: ‘Regrettably, that plan did not work.’
The man left the A127 at Basildon ‘still being tailed’, with ANPR cameras showing his Peugeot was being followed by the BMW and the Toyota.
The man called police as he tried to escape and ‘became increasingly frantic’, said Mr Scott.
While he was still on the phone he was ‘run off the road by Mrs Dance’s car, forcing him into a tree and dislodging [him] from his car.
‘The car being driven by Thomas Summers rammed into him sending him into a bush.
‘One of the occupants being driven by Mr Summers got out and threatened [the complainant] before returning to the car.’
Dance is charged with causing grievous bodily harm with intent, causing serious injury by dangerous driving and possessing a prohibited weapon designed or adapted to discharge noxious liquid, gas or other thing.
Mr Scott said a canister capable of emitting a noxious substance was found near the crash scene and had Dance’s DNA on it.
Southend Crown Court heard today Dance told police she had spent the day of the incident at her son Archie Battersbee’s grave.
Dance claimed she then ‘decided to take a trip down memory lane’, so drove to Basildon Sporting Village, where Archie used to take part in gymnastics.
She has denied she chased any vehicle and said instead she was overtaken by a red Peugeot at ‘high speed’.
Dance told police the Peugeot had hit her car three times and she followed them to ask to pull over.
The complainant, however, told the court a grey BMW had followed him through Basildon with a woman inside before another car blocked his route.
He said a man with blonde hair and a mask on got out carrying a baseball bat and smashed his car windows.
The man told the court he was chased by the two vehicles and had called the police before he was rammed.
He said: ‘I was just in the middle of the grass and I see tree after tree.
‘I thought I was dead. I blacked out… I ended up out of the car. I remember rolling across the floor. I flew out the driver’s door.
‘I saw the other car coming back again. It pulled up next to me on the left and stopped and then reversed and then faced me and then rammed into me.
‘[The man with the baseball bat said] ‘You’re dead, or next time I see you I’m going to kill you’.’
Summers is charged with causing GBH with intent, affray and having an offensive weapon – a baseball bat – in Kenilworth Gardens, Southend and Uppermayne, Basildon.
Rhys Bentley, 25, is charged with causing GBH with intent, causing serious injury by dangerous driving, and affray.
The trial continues.