On 18/09/2017 12:57, Judith wrote:
On Mon, 18 Sep 2017 12:11:42 +0100, JNugent wrote:

On 18/09/2017 12:08, JNugent wrote:

The only return on Google so far today...

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/4489723/cyclist-charlie-alliston-in-court-over-kim-briggs-death/

another added...

http://www.timesandstar.co.uk/news/national/article/Cyclist-who-killed-mother-of-two-to-be-sentenced-7745d2c1-ed89-4bc9-a142-9508ce3788a4-ds


I suppose the ****-poor sentence will only help her husband's campaign for a
law change.

Let us hope so.

Cycling has to be brought within the law.

To be frank, I didn't think the sentence would be as long as nine months
(the effective length for an eighteen-month spell in chokey). The max is
two years.

So perhaps things are already changing for the better.

http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/18/cyclist-gets-18-months-for-killing-mother-while-riding-illegal-bike-for-the-thrill-6936603/

QUOTE:
A former courier who knocked over and killed a mother-of-two while
riding an illegal Olympic-style racing bike for the ‘thrill’ has been
locked up for 18 months.

Charlie Alliston, then 18, was travelling at 18mph on a fixed-wheel
track bike with no front brakes before he crashed into 44-year-old Kim
Briggs as she crossed Old Street in east London, in February last year.
Following a trial at the Old Bailey, Alliston was cleared of
manslaughter but found guilty of causing bodily harm by ‘wanton and
furious driving’.

Sentencing at the Old Bailey Judge Wendy Joseph QC said: ‘I am satisfied
in some part it was this so-called thrill that motivated you to ride
without a front brake shouting and swearing at pedestrians to get out of
the way.

‘I’ve heard your evidence and I have no doubt that even now you remain
obstinately sure of yourself and your own abilities. ‘I have no doubt
you are wrong in this.

‘You were an accident waiting to happen. The victim could have been any
pedestrian. It was in fact Mrs Kim Briggs.’

The judge said Alliston’s ‘whole manner of driving’ caused the accident.
‘If you bicycle had a front wheel brake you could have stopped but on
this illegal bike you could not and on your evidence, by this stage, you
were not even trying to slow or stop. You expected her to get out of the
way.’

Alliston raised his eyebrows as the judge said his sentence would be
custodial.

In a series of posts on social media, Alliston described how he twice
warned Mrs Briggs to ‘get the f*** outta my way’.
He wrote: ‘We collided pretty hard, our heads hit together, hers went
into the floor and ricocheted into mine.’

He complained: ‘It’s not my fault people either think they are
invincible or have zero respect for cyclists.’

But in mitigation, his lawyer Mark Wyeth QC told the court: ‘What we do
not have is a callous young man who doesn’t give a damn about anything.’
He said his client had suffered tragedy at the age of 16 when his father
collapsed and died from a heart attack on the bathroom floor just a week
before Alliston was to sit his GCSEs.

Referring to a pre-sentence report, Mr Wyeth said: ‘There was a lot of
vilification in the case in the manner he expressed himself in posts.
‘There is within him, I respectfully submit, a lot of internal sense of
emotional turmoil but keeps this hidden as a coping strategy.’

The court heard Alliston was depressed, had broken up with his
girlfriend and lost his job.

Prosecutors took the unprecedented step of bringing a manslaughter
charge due to the unusually grave circumstances of the case.

The other offence of wanton and furious driving, under the 1861 Offences
Against the Person Act, carries a maximum sentence of two years in jail.
Mrs Briggs’ widower Matthew, from Lewisham, south London, has called for
a ‘radical change’ in cycling culture and the introduction of new laws,
including causing death by dangerous cycling.

Alliston, now 20, from Bermondsey, south London, had denied both charges
against him.
ENDQUOTE