Pedestrian who screamed 'get off the f****** pavement' and caused cyclist to fall into traffic jailed for manslaughter
02.03.2023 - 17:03
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A pedestrian has been jailed for manslaughter after shouting and waving at a cyclinst on the pavement, causing her to fall into the path of an oncoming car.
Auriol Grey, who has cerebral palsy, shouted at retired midwife Celia Ward to "get off the f*****g pavement" in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire which caused her to fall onto the road. Mrs Ward, 77, of Wyton, Cambridgeshire, was then struck by a car, resulting in her death on October 20, 2020.
The 49-year-old denied manslaughter but was found guilty following a retrial at Peterborough Crown Court. Judge Sean Enright, sentencing Grey to three years in prison, said: "These actions are not explained by disability."
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He added that Grey had no mental disorder or learning difficulties and that the pavement was 2.4 metres wide at the relevant point, higlighting that it was a "shared path on the ring road". Mrs Ward’s widower, retired RAF pilot David Ward, said in a statement read to the court 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. He said they met in 1965 and in their retirement enjoyed playing golf and seeing the world on cruise holidays.
“I miss her terribly and after a year-and-a-half on my own felt the need to sell our house of 34 years and relocated to a retirement village near Romsey (in Hampshire),” he said. He added that he did his to be closer to family, including their daughter Gillian Hayter.
In a victim impact statement read to the