Thirteen-year-old Tyler Cope had been playing football with friends outside his house in Ely, Cardiff, when the incident happened.

Lee Brockway, from Ely, was riding a Yamaha 125 when he crashed into the schoolboy before ploughing into two parked cars.

Brockway had been thrown through the windscreen of one car but fled the scene.

The defendant had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to causing death by dangerous driving.

He was sentenced at Newport Crown Court to three years in a young offenders' institution and disqualified from driving for three years.

The court heard claims that Tyler had gone into the road to retrieve his ball.

Brockway had seen the ball bounce between two cars and, swerving to avoid it, collided with Tyler.

Brockway was said to be full of remorse.

The prosecution said that earlier that day, the defendant had been seen trying to do wheelies in the road and knew children could be playing there at that time.

After the hearing, neighbour Janet Thomas said: "The sentence is absolutely disgusting, everyone was livid when they heard.

"It is an outrage that the person who took the life of a young schoolboy with everything to live for is put away for just three years.

"The views of most people around here is that he should have been jailed for 15 years.