Crime Solicitors

A 26-year-old accountant has been jailed for killing a cyclist he collided with while exchanging texts with a woman he had met online.

The Daily Mail reports that John Michell, 26, was distracted at the wheel as he drove home along a dark and unlit road and subsequently crashed into 57-year-old cyclist Mark Greenwood.

Mr Greenwood was thrown from his bicycle and died from multiple traumatic injuries following the collision with Michell’s Volkswagon Golf.

The crash happened at around 6.25pm on 9 January 2014, despite Mr Greenwood wearing hi-visibility clothing.

Described as a “keen cyclist”, Mr Greenwood was cycling home after he had finished working at the charity Abbeyfield in St Albans – which provides support and care for the elderly.

At around 6pm, he set off for the cycle ride to his home in Redbourn along the A5183, wearing a fluorescent cycling anorak and a helmet, the court was told.

The last sighting of Mr Greenwood cycling out of the city centre in St Albans showed that the lights on his bike were not lit at that stage of his journey home.

The prosecution said that this might have been because he was cycling in a “well lit area”.

Mr Greenwood’s journey was captured in part on CCTV – and he was also seen by a number of motorists on the A5183, riding slowly and in a straight line near the kerb.

St Albans Crown Court heard that in a period of two minutes and 21 seconds leading up to the collision, Michell had composed three WhatsApp messages – and had read two messages he had received from a woman he had met online, but whom he had never met in person.

The messages were described in court as “trivial”.

Michell in his silver Golf was also seen travelling behind Mr Greenwood –
but because of the text messages he was sending and receiving, he had failed to spot Mr Greenwood cycling ahead of him.

By coincidence, the two men lived in the same apartment block in the village of Redbourn in Hertfordshire, although they were not known to each other. Michell has since moved to Northamptonshire.

At the scene of the collision, Michell told a police officer:

“I was travelling along Redbourn Road in the direction of Redbourn. It was dark.

“As I was driving, I received a message on my phone. I glanced down at the phone to see the message.

“When I looked up, the cyclist was there and I collided with it.”

He pleaded guilty to a charge of causing death by dangerous driving and was jailed for 21 months.

Before sentencing, Mr Greenwood's partner, Susan Ullman, had made an impassioned plea in court for Michell not to be sent to prison.

She read a victim impact statement to the court, in which she said that –
despite what had happened – she still did not want Michell to be sent to prison, as it would be “another life lost”.

Duncan Lewis Criminal Solicitors – Motoring Offences

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