Woman who caused cyclist to fall into oncoming car has manslaughter conviction overturned
A woman who shouted and waved at a cyclist causing her to fall into the path of an oncoming car, has had her manslaughter conviction overturned.
Auriol Grey, 49, was caught on CCTV shouting and waving her arm aggressively at Celia Ward, 77, as she approached on her bicycle in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, in October 2020.
Moments later Ms Ward veered off the kerb and fell into the path of an oncoming car and was declared dead at the scene.
Grey, who has cerebral palsy, was jailed for three years at Peterborough Crown Court after a jury found her guilty of manslaughter.
But her conviction has been overturned at the Court of Appeal.
Adrian Darbishire KC, for Ms Grey, said: ‘Hostile gesticulation is not a crime, otherwise we would have 50,000 football fans each weekend being apprehended.’
Three judges at the Court of Appeal in London overturned her conviction.
Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Mrs Justice Yip and Mrs Justice Farbey, said: ‘In our judgment, the prosecution case was insufficient event to be left to the jury.’
She continued: ‘In all the circumstances, we have no hesitation in concluding that the appellant’s conviction for manslaughter is unsafe.’
Mrs Ward’s widower, retired RAF pilot David Ward, said in a statement read during the trial last year by prosecutor Simon Spence KC that the ‘clip of Celia’s last moments will haunt me forever’.
‘Rarely a day goes by without thinking of her and our happy life together, but I can so easily burst into tears, as I have on so many occasions,’ he said.
The driver of the car which collided with Mrs Ward, Carla Money, who was with her two-year-old daughter at the time, said that her life was ‘turned upside down’ by what happened.
The court heard Ms Grey, who attended the hearing, was charged with unlawful act manslaughter – which requires an unlawful action to take place that caused death.
However, her lawyers told appeal judges that no such ‘base offence’ was ever identified at the trial.
Adrian Darbishire KC, for Ms Grey, said: ‘The trial seems to have proceeded on the basis that some kind of unlawfulness, undefined and unspecified, was sufficient to found this offence of homicide.’
Dame Victoria and her fellow appeal judges agreed, ruling that the jury were not asked to decide ‘the fundamental question of whether a base offence was established’.
The senior judge continued: ‘The appellant’s actions that day contributed to Mrs Ward’s untimely death… Had Mrs Ward not died we regard it as inconceivable that the appellant would have been charged with assault.’
Ms Grey’s actions had been described as ‘hostile gesticulation’ towards Mrs Ward during her original trial.
In a statement, Auriol Grey’s legal team at Hickman and Rose, as well as her barristers, said: ‘For reasons which remain unclear, the legal elements of unlawful act manslaughter – the offence with which Ms Grey was charged – were never properly identified, nor were they explained to the jury.
‘Once the legal elements of the offence were properly understood, it was clear that there was no proper basis for Ms Grey to be convicted of manslaughter, or indeed any offence. Ms Grey should simply have never been charged.
‘Neither Mrs Ward’s family, nor Ms Grey and hers, should ever have been put through this ordeal.’
This is a developing news story, more to follow soon… Check back shortly for further updates.
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