The family of a landscape gardener knocked down and killed by a £120,000 Bentley in an alleged hit-and-run today paid tribute to a “doting father”.
Chris Jones, 23, was directing traffic around his broken-down van in Notting Hill when he was struck by the high-powered GT Coupe allegedly being driven at around 70mph.
The driver and a passenger are said to have climbed out of the silver Bentley Continental and fled, leaving the headlights on and hip-hop music blaring from the speakers.
Mr Jones, who had just moved from Deal in Kent to London with his girlfriend and had a young daughter, was hit at around 11.50pm last Thursday. Today his devastated family and friends paid tribute to a “fantastic young man”, “amazing dad”, and a “one-off with a giant smile”.
His uncle Andrew Cowell, 49, said: “He was just a nice, normal guy starting a new episode in London whose life has been tragically cut short.
“We feel incredibly upset for his daughter, who he doted on. The tragedy of it all is that he was only trying to help people avoid his van. If he’d walked away he might still be here.”
Writing online, his mother Ruth Jones said: “I cannot express my aching heart but Chris I loved you so very much but in my heart you will live forever my baby you will always be.”
Sophie Lee, mother of his daughter, wrote: “He was a one in a million guy and the best dad we could have hoped for.”
Mr Jones had organised a surprise 22nd birthday party for his student girlfriend Trudy Friend on the evening before he was killed. She posted a photo on Facebook of the couple blowing out candles on her cake.
Romanian bodybuilder George Claudiu Albu, 31, from Paddington, was arrested at his £1 million flat and appeared at West London magistrates’ court yesterday charged with causing death by dangerous driving, driving without insurance, and failing to stop at the scene of a collision. He was remanded in custody.
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