Hauled before court in Greater Manchester last week

A speeding motorcyclist who killed his friend with a dangerous manoeuvre and then left him to die in the road was put behind bars in Greater Manchester last week.

A husband who slit his wife's throat then tried to kill himself in a failed suicide pact and the mother of a notorious playboy drugs boss also appeared in court this week for sentencing.

Manchester Evening News reporters are in court to cover the most serious cases laid before judges.

Here are the defendants hauled before the courts in Greater Manchester over the past seven days.

A motorcyclist captured on CCTV racing his friend has been jailed for a 'shocking' manoeuvre which killed his pal during lockdown. Cambell Kennedy, then 23, and his friend Kyle Hempenstall, 28, had been using the roads like 'their own private race track' as they rode their powerful Yamaha R1 machines, a court was told.

Kennedy, who had earlier pulled a wheelie and given another driver the 'w***er hand gesture', led his friend between a Transit van and an HGV on the M62 when he suddenly hit the brakes and beckoned Kyle to follow, prompting the van to brake sharply and swerve towards the lorry.

Kyle's handlebar clipped the van as the gap narrowed. He lost control and his bike smashed into a highways maintenance digger. The father of one, who worked as a joiner, died of catastrophic injuries at the scene. Kennedy continued to speed away, turned around at the next junction and passed the scene of the crash he had just caused as he fled back to his home in Stockport.

The crash happened between junctions 12 for Eccles and 11 for Birchwood as the pair sped away from Manchester at 1pm on Wednesday May 27, 2020, when traffic was 'light' due to the national lockdown in place at the time,