A Romford man died on the A13 in Newham after a "mystery motorist” cut him up and then sped off, a court heard last week.

Matthew Whitcombe, 19, suffered irreversible brain-damage on January 15 while riding his motorbike to work.

His parents Lee and Clare called him “a sociable boy” and “a loyal friend and son” at the inquest.

They told coroner Ian Wade QC they believed, based on eyewitness accounts, that another driver’s actions had “led to his accident, causing his death”.

Matthew, they said, was “a confident biker” who knew the A13 "very well".

Matthew had not yet passed his motorbike test and was driving with L plates, which is legal.

Mr Wade said he had been driving at roughly 65mph in a 50mph zone, “using the well-recognised agility and flexibility of a motorcycle to slot his way through the traffic”.

Eyewitness Thomas Keen was in the outside lane, just past the Beckton flyover, when Matthew undertook him and began to move in front of him.

At that point, said both Mr Keen and his passenger Reece Dixon, a car suddenly pulled from lane two into lane three “without indicating”, in front of Matthew.

Mr Dixon said he saw the bike "clip the rear” of the car. The car braked, he said, “but then it just carried on.”

Another witness, Lucian Afloarei, agreed that the car “slowed down a little”, then “accelerated and disappeared in the traffic": "It was zig-zagging between the cars.”

Meanwhile, Matthew’s bike somersaulted and he was thrown into a lamppost.

Police found no physical evidence of the car and bike colliding, and never traced the car.

Mr Keen and Mr Dixon both thought it was a Mitsubishi Colt, but they and Mr Afloarei all remembered it being different colours.

“I absolutely understand that Lee and Clare will feel anguish and distress at the thought that there may have been someone involved who manoeuvred their vehicle in a way that ideally ought not to have happened,” said Mr Wade.

“We just don’t know who that person is. We just don’t know what they did or did not know.

“Sometimes bad things happen and, on this occasion, Matthew, very sadly, was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Matthew’s organs were donated, per his wishes, which Mr Wade called a “wonderful gift”.