Coventry city centre to be lit up in memory of Corey and Casper one year on from deaths - The Coventry Observer

Coventry city centre to be lit up in memory of Corey and Casper one year on from deaths

Coventry Editorial 19th Feb, 2019 Updated: 19th Feb, 2019   0

COVENTRY city centre will be lit up in memory of young brothers Corey and Casper Platt-May to mark the one year anniversary of their tragic deaths.

Corey and Casper, aged six and two respectively, were killed by a speeding driver on Longfellow Road a year ago on Friday (February 22).

Coventry City Council confirmed it will switch on red lights in the city centre around Broadgate and the Godiva statue to mark the anniversary.

The red lights, which will be switched on as darkness falls, are to symbolise football-loving Corey’s affection for Manchester United.




The boys’ deaths captured the attention of the nation and ignited a push to introduce sterner sentences for those who cause death by dangerous driving.

Tributes were paid from across the city along with an outpouring of support for the Platt-May family.


In the months after the boys’ deaths, their heartbroken father, Reece, was found dead while on holiday in Corfu.

Family friend Leanne Robinson has called on Coventrians to join her in lighting a candle for the boys, their father and family at 6pm.

She said: “In respect to all the Platt-May and Briscoe family I would also like to arrange at 6pm on Friday, for anyone who wants to, to light a candle to show them we are still thinking of them.

“There isn’t a day that goes by where I don’t think of Corey, Casper or Reece.

“And it breaks my heart that we can’t change the past but this way we can show the love from Coventry as a community without interrupting their private way of remembering the boys.”

Fittingly, works also began installing traffic calming measures on Longfellow Road this week after a spate of accidents over the years.

The £120,000 scheme is in response to a well-backed campaign spearheaded by the Platt-May family, including petitions with a total of 4,600 signatures.

The council is implementing ‘pedestrian refuge’ islands in the middle of road, two ‘raised table’ style speed humps and ‘ladder style’ road markings.

At just after 2pm on February 22 last year, the Platt-May brothers, who were with their mother, were hit by a black Ford Focus doing 61mph driven by Robert Brown, who was high on cocaine.

Driver Brown sped off before abandoning the car in nearby Hipswell Highway, but he and his passenger Gwendoline Harrison were arrested shortly afterwards.

Brown was sentenced to nine years – later raised to ten-and-a-half years – at Warwick Crown Court in April for causing the boys’ deaths – after pleading guilty.

Harrison was released in July after serving only weeks in prison, prompting further outcry about the leniency of the sentences the pair received.

Robert Brown was found dead in his prison cell in December.

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