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Court case complete.......some reflections

by Pastmybest
Sat, Mar 17, 2018 08:59
6

Hi all

For those of you who asked to be kept posted about the trial I was involved in (http://road.cc/content/forum/234402-courtany-tips) here's what happened:

1. Verdict was guilty of 'assualt by beating'. Defendant claimed that I cycled into him on purpose, but the magistrates accepted that he'd run into the road and pulled me off my bike deliberately.

2. Turned out to be a 3rd offence for the defendant.

3. Process of dealing with the assigned TVP officer and the witness care unit was so painful I would almost certainly never avoidably go through it again. A very f*cking frustrating 11 months. Utter lack of efficiency, care, communication, professionalism and general competence. Apologies if any of you out there are professionally involved with TVP - I appreciate that I am a sample size of 1, that this case was low-priority, and that I may have been unlucky, but even so I was astonished by how much went wrong.

4. Not hopeful of getting any compensation as I suspect the guy will plead hardship, but we'll see.

5. CPS barrister absolutely superb, and went after the defendent with proper vigour and intent.

6. Really hoping that's the end of it and our paths don't cross again.

Maybe I stopped the next rider from getting attacked, maybe I didn't, maybe I've stored a load of future trouble for myself, who knows.

Glad it's over, but don't commit to this course of action unless you are willing to undergo the 21st century equivalent of the Labours of Hercules to see it through.......

Over and out.

 

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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6 comments

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Craigus Farticus | 6 years ago
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I was side swipped off of my Hybrid in July last year by a car. The offside handlebar (straight) ended up locked through the cars open nearside passenger window! The driver apologised with us both still moving and decided to vere right. This caused me to get pulled down leaving me sliding down the road and spending the evening in hospital.

The police attended within minutes and were pretty good. I later double checked their CCTV enquiries and the results matched. Unfortunately, without CCTV evidence they dropped any case against the driver.

I was left with potentailly taking the driver to the small claims court. This initially caused the driver to offer to pay for all of the repairs. Withing a few days the offer was at £100 via PayPal and once the police dropped the investigation, the driver asked me for £500 to fix his paintwork! Faced with a potential counter-claim of £500, I ditched the small claim. 2

 

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BehindTheBikesheds replied to Craigus Farticus | 6 years ago
1 like

Craigus Farticus wrote:

I was side swipped off of my Hybrid in July last year by a car. The offside handlebar (straight) ended up locked through the cars open nearside passenger window! The driver apologised with us both still moving and decided to vere right. This caused me to get pulled down leaving me sliding down the road and spending the evening in hospital.

The police attended within minutes and were pretty good. I later double checked their CCTV enquiries and the results matched. Unfortunately, without CCTV evidence they dropped any case against the driver.

I was left with potentailly taking the driver to the small claims court. This initially caused the driver to offer to pay for all of the repairs. Withing a few days the offer was at £100 via PayPal and once the police dropped the investigation, the driver asked me for £500 to fix his paintwork! Faced with a potential counter-claim of £500, I ditched the small claim. 2

civil claims do not need the burden a criminal case does. You could have got more info from the police as to likely scenario and how things happened, that they dropped it without any CCTV is ridiculous when there is a witness (you) and the fact they continued driving to get away when they'd hooked your bars and dragging you along the road.

Difficult call but you should have called their bluff.

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Pastmybest | 6 years ago
2 likes

Cheers. Sentence next week. Looking like a community order. And you're right, I doubt I'll be jetting out to Mauritius on my G6 on the compensation, but the application is in on the Criminal Injuries Compensation Scheme.

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Welsh boy | 6 years ago
2 likes

Thanks for the update, I am sorry that it wasn’t a pleasant or straight forward process for you but respect to you for going through the process and doing the right thing, we can only hope that more people follow your example and take the difficult but correct opinion. I don’t think that your poor experience of the boys in blue is limited to one force, I was hit by a car and whilst in bed with a broken back the local police came and took a statement from me which they read back to me and on the basis of watching them write as I spoke and them reading back what they asked me to sign I put my signature to it. A few years later I somehow saw a copy of my statement which contained whole sections they had included and not read back to me. Now I deal with police statements in a professional capacity I know that they are very poorly trained in this function and, like you, I think that they can be very sloppy.

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Pastmybest replied to Welsh boy | 6 years ago
1 like

Welsh boy wrote:

Thanks for the update, I am sorry that it wasn’t a pleasant or straight forward process for you but respect to you for going through the process and doing the right thing, we can only hope that more people follow your example and take the difficult but correct opinion. I don’t think that your poor experience of the boys in blue is limited to one force, I was hit by a car and whilst in bed with a broken back the local police came and took a statement from me which they read back to me and on the basis of watching them write as I spoke and them reading back what they asked me to sign I put my signature to it. A few years later I somehow saw a copy of my statement which contained whole sections they had included and not read back to me. Now I deal with police statements in a professional capacity I know that they are very poorly trained in this function and, like you, I think that they can be very sloppy.

It's a tough, stressful, under-resourced and under-appreciated job, and I don't doubt for a moment that there are tens of thousands of superb officers out there, but the guy they put on my case was beyond hopeless, and it's hard to imagine any situation or environment in which he'd be an effective resource. I eventually complained and they (claimed they) put him on a performance improvement programme. Like I say, I'm a small sample size, but I honestly expected there to be a 'floor' beneath which TVP performance standards wouldn't fall. I was wrong.

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iandusud | 6 years ago
5 likes

Well done for seeing it through. I trust that if the perpetrator can't come up with compensation that you will receive something through the Criminal Compensation Scheme. Of course whatever you get, either from the perp or the CCS will not be comeasurate with what you have been put through. 

Has sentencing been passed? Do let us know the outcome.

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