A police officer has pleaded not guilty to causing the deaths of a child actor and his aunt during a police chase.

PC Edward Welch, from Chatham, appeared in court today and denied all four charges against him relating to the deaths of Makayah McDermott and Rozanne Cooper.

The Met officer has been charged with two counts of causing death by dangerous driving after he was chasing speeding driver Joshua Dobby in Penge, south east London five years ago.

Dobby, aged 23 at the time, lost control of a stolen Ford Focus and crashed into the pair and three other people on August 31, 2016.

It is alleged Welch was driving the marked police car pursuing Dobby who was driving at four times the 20mph speed limit, the wrong way down a one way street and mounted the kerb at 50mph.

Makayah, who was only 10-years-old, died at the scene.

Ms Cooper's daughter was injured along with Makayah's older twin sisters. All three girls were taken to hospital but survived the collision.

Welch, 32, also denied two other dangerous driving charges.

Dobby, the estranged son of a millionaire – was convicted for manslaughter and jailed for 12 years in 2017.

He stole the car after finding the keys in the street and was on his way to sell it to buy drugs, the Old Bailey heard at his trial.

Police abandoned their chase as he drove at 80mph through red lights and through a 30mph zone at 70mph in Penge, the court was told.

Eight months after Dobby was jailed, the police watchdog, the IPCC now called the IOPC, announced an investigation was being launched and that the two officers involved in the chase could face criminal charges.

A second PC who was with PC Welch has not been charged as the CPS concluded there was no legal basis for prosecution.

Makayah had been given leading roles in productions at his south London theatre school and just weeks before his death auditioned for a part in a major new television series.

His 13-year-old twin sisters also appeared in a string of national advertising campaigns.

The three siblings all attended the Pop School and Stage Academy (PSSA) in Beckenham, south east London, and Makayah starred in a production of Wizard of Oz spin-off The Wiz not long before he died, in which his two sisters also appeared.

The young star had also performed at nearby Catford’s Broadway Theatre.

After the accident, around 20 passers-by were said to have rushed to lift the car in order for the twins to crawl free.

After pleading guilty, Dobby was jailed for 12 years concurrently after admitting two counts of manslaughter as well as three years and four months in prison for causing serious injury by dangerous driving on August 31, 2016, and 16 months for dangerous driving five days earlier.

He was also banned from driving for 15 years and will have to retake a driving test.

The charges follow a year-long investigation by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) which finished in August 2017.

In August 2017 the IOPC handed a file of evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service. The file related to both PC Welch and the other officer involved and their actions during and following the pursuit.

Then in June 2019 an inquest ruled Makayah and Ms Cooper were unlawfully killed by Dobby.

Welch will next appear at the Old Bailey on October 8 when a trial date is expected to be set.

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