Pregnant partner believes Sheffield man hit by his own car was ‘killed in attempted robbery’

But Clyn Beaumont’s grieving partner, who was eight months pregnant at the time, is convinced the 44-year-old RAC recovery driver was the victim of an attempted robbery as he returned to his home in Manor that night.

Sheffield Coroner’s Court today heard how Mr Beaumont, known to friends as Glyn, had driven home from work on Saturday, May 30 last year, stopping to visit some friends on the way to show them his new Range Rover.

Police told how neighbours had reported hearing two loud bangs that night as the car crashed into a fence and then the wall of a house on Vikinglea Drive, just off Prince of Wales Road.

Mr Beaumont was found lying seriously injured on the ground and was pronounced dead at the scene.

PC Christopher Whitehead, from South Yorkshire Police’s Serious Collisions Unit, told the court officers had initially investigated the possibility of a ‘third party’ being involved but extensive enquiries found ‘nothing to suggest’ this was the case.

A post-mortem found that Mr Beaumont had died of multiple injuries which were consistent with being crushed or driven over by a car, with nothing to indicate he had been assaulted.

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PC Nicholas Brady-Smith, a forensic collision investigator, told the court he believed the car had rolled backwards because it had not been properly secured, with Mr Beaumont either becoming wedged between the vehicle and the fence or being crushed as the car rolled over him.

Mr Beaumont’s partner, Kirsty Linnett, said there were a number of factors which led her to believe someone else was involved, including the force of the impact, the car being in ‘drive’ mode when it was found and the fact Mr Beaumount had initially been seen pulling into a neighbour’s drive, which she thinks may have been because his attacker was waiting for him in his drive.

She also told how a few days later a group of children had come to lay flowers and told her Mr Beaumont had been killed when ‘someone tried robbing his car’.

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Dismissing the theory her partner had failed to secure the car, she said: “He’d worked with cars since he was 17 and I know he’s not going to make a silly mistake like that.”

PC Brady-Smith said the car may have been knocked into ‘drive’ by Mr Beaumont as he tried to stop it rolling or by a neighbour once it was already at rest.

Recording a conclusion of accidental death, assistant coroner Tanyka Rawden said: “On the balance of probabilities, with the evidence I have today, I’m going to find that on May 30, 2020, Mr Beaumont alighted from his Range Rover Sport motor vehicle on Vikinglea Drive in Sheffield.

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"It’s likely the vehicle wasn’t in ‘park’ mode and the handbrake hadn’t been applied, causing it to travel backwards and either collide with Mr Beaumont or cause him to become trapped between the fence and the driver door, causing his fatal injuries.”

Addressing Ms Linnett, she added: “I’m sorry you feel this isn’t right and this isn’t what happened.

"I hope in time there will be something that comes to light that explains exactly what did happen.”