Tom Crispin wrote:
On Tuesday, February 9, 2016 at 12:22:39 PM UTC, Peter Parry wrote:

The CPS obviously lack your legal expertise as it seems that at no time
did they or the police attempt to charge either of the two possible
offenders with anything other than leaving the scene of an accident and
failing to report the accident (both maximum sentence 6 months in jail
but usually a fine). This seems odd given your legal opinion that
charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice and attempted
causing GBH ( both carrying potential life sentences) have been proven
beyond reasonable doubt. You obviously have access to the court report
as well as there is no public evidence either was lying - they could
equally well have simply declined to say anything.

If the CPS have taken the correct legal decision not to further pursue
the matter, then there is something wrong with the law.

Strictly speaking, no. The law here is not wrong. The law as it stands
allows for the prosecution of the responsible driver under s. 18 of the
OAPA 1861 and of both persons named as hirers for conspiracy to pervert the
course of justice - a prospect which, I am sure, would concentrate the mind
of the one who wasn't driving but who is covering up for the one who was.

There is no 'improvement' that you need to make to English law, to plug
this 'loophole', for there is no 'loophole' here. What there is, however,
is yet another manifestation of the institutionalized culture of impunity
under which car drivers are allowed - sometimes literally [1] - to get
away with murder when the victim is a cyclist.

[1] if you'll excuse the momentary incorrect use of 'literally'...
--
john smith |MA (Hons)|MPhil (Hons)|CAPES (mention très bien)|LLB (Hons)
'It never gets any easier. You just get faster'
(Greg LeMond (1961 - ))