My friend Callum

Callum, known as CJ to his friends and family, spent the hours before his death playing happily in trees with his older brother Sam, 12, and friend Dominic Davies.The three boys played "foolish boys' games" just before CJ was hit by illegal immigrant Kamel Kadri's Renault 5 on the A259 Littlehampton Road at Ferring, an inquest heard.

Kadri was sent to prison after pleading guilty to, among other things, driving off after the crash.

The inquest into CJ's death, held at Arundel Town Hall, heard a statement made by 12-year-old Dominic two days after the tragedy.

Reading the statement, Sergeant Philip Nicholas said: "On New Year's Eve the boys had gone up Highdown Hill, where they found a tree and built a base. Sam had phoned Dominic the next day asking if he wanted to play and Sam had called for him in the afternoon.Dominic's mother had told him to be back at 5pm and they went back to Sam's to get his younger brother Callum. The three of them went up Highdown Hill."

At about 3pm the boys decided to go home. They stopped for 20 minutes to play in mud before continuing.

Sgt Nicholas said: "One of Callum's trainers came off and his foot got completely covered in mud. They saw the street lights start to come on and thought they had better go home. The boys were talking about which way they should go home. Dominic wanted to go his way and Sam wanted to go another.They got to the junction with the lane and the dual carriageway (A259) they decided to go Dominic's way and started to walk along the grass verge.Dominic said they were playing what he described as foolish boys' games as they walked along the verge. Callum was at the front."

He said that Callum was walking backwards, facing the two boys.

He said: "Dominic was carrying a hubcap he had picked up to take back to his dad. Sam said something along the lines of: 'We'll cross when there's a big enough gap'. Sam had to step out from the verge a bit to get round a tree. Dominic did not know which of these two events came first.Dominic did not see the accident because he looked down at the hubcap and saw his hand was covered in oil. He heard a bang and saw that Sam was hysterical.Dominic said the sound was like something hollow, like someone hitting the top of a piano."

The two boys put their hands up to stop the traffic and they ran over to where CJ was lying.Sgt Nicholas went on to say: "He thought Callum had misheard his brother's word's as 'We'll cross' and Sam moving round the tree had made Callum think they were going to cross the road.Dominic felt there was some confusion in what had been said."

Doctor Mark Appleton carried out the post mortem examination on Callum. He said the cause of death was due to "a blunt head injury" and that death would have been "very rapid, if not instantaneous."

PC Michael Scott, who helped investigate the accident, said: "It's my opinion that this tragic incident occurred very quickly and was the result of Callum mis-hearing or mis-interpreting the actions of the others." PC Scott said he thought the accident was over in three or four seconds and he told the inquest that there was a pedestrian crossing point only 75 to 100m away. Robin Hazelton was driving along the A259 from Littlehampton with his wife to collect his children in Durrington when he was overtaken by Kamel Kadri's car.He said: "The car overtook us. As the car was overtaking the boys decided to cross the road. The younger one hesitated and because he hesitated he was hit by the car."

Several police interviews were held with Kadri. In the third interview Kadri said he did not see Callum in the road. His statement, which was in broken English, said: "I scared. My heart just stopped. Can't do anything. Shock. Surprise." In his interview, Kadri said he had been doing 55 to 60mph on the road, which has a 50mph speed limit, but the police investigating the crash were unable to calculate his speed.

Recording a verdict of accidental death, West Sussex Coroner Roger Stone said: "It does appear that from a driver's perspective there was very little time for any driver to react. There does not seem to be any gross conduct before the incident. What happened after is not my job.This can only be registered as a true and tragic accident."

Algerian-born Kadri pleaded guilty to failing to stop after an accident, failing to report an accident, driving with no insurance, no driving licence, and using a false passport.He was jailed for eight months for the driving offences and 16 months for using the false French passport to gain entry to the UK. He was also banned from driving for two years.Algerian-born Kadri was originally jailed for six months and disqualified from driving for two years but in February the prison sentence was reduced by two months after it was discovered the judge exceeded his powers.