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"Bizarre" charges dropped against Barton biker after conflict of evidence

In what are described as "bizarre" driving charges against a Barton-on-Humber man, it is claimed that faced with two conflicting pieces of evidence the police decided to believe them both.

In September last year Tobias Cox, aged 25, was riding his Lifan 125cc motorcycle along Barrow Road in Barton when he was involved in a collision with a car.

The car driver, Philip Bradley, pulled out of Whitecross Street across Mr Cox's path. Mr Cox struck the car and was thrown over the bonnet.

There were two witnesses to the accident, who were divided as to where they put the blame. But the driver who felt Mr Cox was responsible based his opinion not on the circumstances of the accident, but on the manner in which he felt he had been overtaken by him earlier.

The other witness had no criticism of Mr Cox's driving and blamed the car driver. The police therefore had two competing versions of events, and decided to prosecute both parties to the accident.
Mr Cox was badly hurt in the accident. He suffered a severe break to his leg which will have lifelong consequences and affect Mr Cox's activities permanently.

Both the police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) are severely criticized by Mr Cox's lawyer, Darren Hackley-Green, who is managing the case and is head of the motor defence team at Cardiff-based law firm NewLaw.
He claims that for months following the accident, the CPS failed to correspond with Mr Cox or inform him of the charges they were proposing against him. He also claims that documents which were supposed to have been sent to NewLaw were lost or never arrived.

"It's quite bizarre," claims Darren Hackley-Green. "First, the police decide to prosecute Toby for his riding, even though they also rely on the evidence of another witness who says Toby couldn't have avoided the accident.
"It's also bizarre that, faced with two diametrically conflicting pieces of evidence, the police decide to believe them both. So on that basis, the CPS go on to prosecute both driver and rider.
"Meanwhile Toby had suffered serious injuries in the accident, including memory problems relating to how it happened. He was exceptionally distressed at not knowing what the police intended to charge him with and also at not being able to present his own version of events.

"We told the CPS months ago that the charges were untenable and should be dropped, but it's only in the past month that they have agreed to do so. They even forgot to tell us or Toby of their decision until a month later, when we complained at the lack of communication.

"Meanwhile we believe that they continue to press charges against the motorist."

12/08/2010

 

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