Family of Birmingham tot Cerys Edwards angry over trust fund delay

May 16 2009 by Nick McCarthy, Birmingham Mail

THE father of battling Birmingham toddler Cerys Edwards today demanded “action not words” from the driver who left her paralysed and brain damaged.

Millionaire’s son Antonio Boparan vowed to set up a trust fund for Cerys Edwards and other young children after he was released early from a 21-month sentence for dangerous driving six months ago.

He also said he would raise awareness and talk to teenagers about driving safely.

Cerys’s dad, 44-year-old builder Gareth Edwards, claimed his words had proved hollow and Boparan had let his daughter down.

But Boparan insisted Cerys, from Sutton Coldfield, was always on his mind and he was about to launch a trust fund for her and other young victims of road crashes.

Mr Edwards said: “I do not believe anything will happen, it’s just empty promises.

“I was told by Antonio’s dad, Ranjit, that he and his wife thought of Cerys as one of their own children.

“He said his son would devote all his time and energy to help Cerys and other victims of car crashes. But he has been out for six months now and nothing has happened.

“We’ve heard lots of promises, but we have seen no action.”

Boparan was jailed in April last year after a jury found him guilty of dangerous driving.

He was travelling at more than 70mph on the wrong side of the 30mph-limit Streetly Lane in Sutton Coldfield when his powerful Range Rover Sport ploughed head-on into the Edwards’ car in November 2006.

Cerys, then just a one-year-old, was ripped from her baby seat. She was left paralysed, brain-damaged and unable to breathe without a ventilator.

In a statement, Boparan, from Little Aston, said: “Not a minute or an hour goes by when I don’t think about the effect this tragic accident has had on the Edwards family.