Secret motorbike tragedy of teenager with 'heart of gold'

BOY HID CRASH MACHINE FROM DEVASTATED PARENTS

- STEPHEN TOPPING

A TEENAGER bought a previously stolen motorbike with his mate and kept it secret from his parents weeks before riding it in a tragic horror crash.

Mckenna Leigh, from Denton, picked up his pal outside McDonald's before riding past slow-moving traffic on a busy Tameside road, Stockport Coroners Court heard.

The 16-year-old, who was an apprentice joiner at Tameside College, wasn't trained to ride the Honda and wasn't wearing a helmet when he collided with a Vauxhall Vivaro van.

His father told coroner Adrian Farrow that had he known about the secret motorbike, Mckenna 'wouldn't have been allowed out. The court heard how Mckenna had a 'passion' for bikes at a young age, using a Yamaha 'pee-wee 50' children's bike on fields with his older sister.

He appeared to lose interest in motorcycles as he got older and he turned down the opportunity to do compulsory basic training aged 16.

Mckenna's dad, Darren Smith, told the inquest his son was 'always out on his sister's pushbike' instead.

He left the house with that bike at around 11.15am on September 17 last year, before swapping it for a Honda 125 motorbike, which he had bought with a friend and kept secret from his family.