Motorist found guilty of killing Pat Kenny receives community order

A motorist found guilty of causing the death by careless driving last year of record-breaking cyclist Pat Kenny has been banned from driving for 12 months and given a community order that will require him to carry out 150 hours’ unpaid work, reports the Express and Star.

The sentence handed down to 46-year-old Andrew Mylrea from Derby by Judge Simon Tonking at Stafford Court last Friday is almost identical to the one just days earlier to 51-year-old Paul Luker by Harrow Crown Court for causing the death by careless driving of RAF officer Group Captain Tomas Barrett.

Luker received a 12-month driving ban and a community order under which he will have to undertake 100 hours’ unpaid work.

Like Luker, Mylrea, who works as the head of an aero-engine safety team at Rolls Royce in Derby, had claimed that he may have been blinded by the sun prior to the incident that claimed 72-year-old Mr Kenny’s life last year on the A38 near Burton-on-Trent.

Sentencing Mylrea, who had denied the charge, Judge Tonking said: “This is not a case for a custodial sentence.

“I accept you are normally a careful and considerate driver – this was a complete aberration. Your carelessness was failing to see Mr Kenny and his bicycle.”

In mitigation, David Mason QC had said: “Mr Mylrea has always accepted he caused the death of Mr Kenny, the issue was whether it amounted to criminality.”

On Friday, the judge told the court that a member of Mr Kenny’s family had said of Mylrea, “It’s not so much that he made a mistake, but that he would not acknowledge it”.

The judge added: “I note from the pre-sentence report he has now acknowledged that he was in error.”

Mr Kenny, who lived in Whittington near Lichfield, rode more than 900,000 miles during his lifetime and in 1980 set a new record of two days, ten hours and 30 minutes for cycling from Land’s End to John O’Groats by tricycle.