A COMPANY director is facing jail after he was convicted of causing the death by dangerous driving of a six-year-old boy ten years after his own son died in a horrific accident.

Brian Hopkinson will be sentenced next month after a jury yesterday returned its guilty verdict at the end of a four-day trial at Teesside Crown Court.

Hopkinson had said he could not have avoided the crash in North Yorkshire in April last year in which Matthew Bull died because he did not see the car the youngster was in.

Hopkinson's Vauxhall Vectra hit the back of a Vauxhall Corsa being driven by Matthew's mother, Teresa, on the Darlington to Northallerton road.

The hatchback was spun into the opposite carriageway of the A167 and into the path of a Land Rover Discovery coming the other way.

Matthew, who was sitting on a booster seat behind his mother, took the brunt of the impact and suffered multiple injuries.

It emerged during private legal arguments, although the jury was never told, that Hopkinson's son died ten years ago.

The 73-year-old said that because of the tragedy, in which his son was trapped in a car when it burst into flames, he had become a much more careful motorist.

Hopkinson told the jury he had pleaded not guilty to the charge because he disputed prosecution claims that he had almost seven seconds to avoid the accident.

But after deliberating for almost six hours, the jury returned their 10-2 majority verdict.

Hopkinson, of Ellerbeck, Northallerton, North Yorkshire, was bailed, and will return to court on February 15 to be sentenced.

He told the jury he accepted Matthew would still be alive had he not rammed his mother's car on April 22, but said he never saw the hatchback.

Mrs Bull's car was said to have been stationary, indicating and waiting to turn right towards East Cowton, and Hopkinson was said to have had adequate time to either brake or pass on the inside.

Hopkinson said he was driving home from church in Darlington when it began to rain and he put on the wipers to clear the windscreen, but they caused a smear that hampered his vision.