A cyclist who rode on the wrong side of a pedestrian crossing during a group ride in Regent’s Park — hitting a woman and fracturing her skull — has been fined £500 and ordered to pay £2,500 compensation after admitting riding without due care and attention.

Matthew Thornley was riding laps of the London park, a popular destination for many cyclists in the city, when he hit 53-year-old Paola Dos Santos as she used a pedestrian crossing, knocking her unconscious and inflicting multiple fractures to her eye socket, jawbone and cheekbone, as well as musculoskeletal injuries.

The Telegraph reported Thornley was riding laps as part of a Club Peloton group ride when the collision happened on Hanover Terrace at 7.30am in May last year. 

Lawyers representing the cyclist said there was a “build up of traffic” which led to him taking “evasive action” and riding on the wrong side of the road and a pedestrian island, where he hit Ms Dos Santos. Thornley added that he was not riding faster than the park’s 20mph speed limit and called the riding an “evasive manoeuvre”.

“Our client is very, very sorry for what has happened and always has been,” Mark Bowen from Shearman Bowen solicitors said. “He made concerted efforts at the beginning; he remained at the scene and he later contacted the hospital.”

Last week, Thornley was sentenced and fined £500 and ordered to pay £2,500 compensation. He was due to stand trial this week having denied riding without due care and attention, but pleaded guilty on September 3 and was sentenced at Westminster Magistrates’ Court.

The group ride Thornley was part of was organised by Club Peloton, who confirmed he is a member who was taking part in one of its “informal” rides that is “open to members and organised by volunteers within our community”.

A spokesperson told The Telegraph the club has “reviewed member communications and reinforced guidance around safe and respectful riding” following the incident.

However, Ms Dos Santos told the newspaper the sentence was “paltry and insulting”, claiming she had not been informed of the change to Thornley’s plea and never submitted an impact statement.

She commented: “What annoys me is that the judge has sentenced this cyclist without any input from me about how this collision has affected me. The cyclist was on the wrong side of the road. If a motorist was driving on the wrong side of the road and caused these injuries he or she would have been punished far more severely.

“I have little doubt his bike cost way more than the £500 fine he has received for the offence. But, the fact this man is a cyclist without insurance means he has got away with it. Solicitors are not prepared to fight such cases for victims because cyclists do not have insurance.

“Many nerves in my face are totally messed up and some muscles permanently damaged. I feel that justice has not been done, let alone be seen to be done, and I seem not to matter in this court process.”

The collision which injured Ms Dos Santos happened the day before an inquest into the death of Hilda Griffiths, an 81-year-old who died in hospital two months after being hit by a cyclist riding laps of Regent’s Park.

Brian Fitzgerald was riding at a speed of between 25 and 29mph when he hit Ms Griffiths at the same spot as Thornley’s incident two years later. The inquest into Ms Griffiths’ death saw the Metropolitan Police confirm that the 20mph speed limit does not apply to people riding bicycles and that the case was closed because there was “insufficient evidence for a real prospect of conviction”.

The case involving Ms Griffiths played a significant role in the campaign for stricter dangerous cycling laws, promoted by sections of the press including The Telegraph, and fast-tracked by the Conservative government then in power and former leader Iain Duncan Smith. The Labour government is expected to introduce the legislation in question, believed to be part of a wider review of road laws.

Commenting on Ms Dos Santos’s case, a Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: “We are striving to improve the experience of victims as it is vital for them to achieve justice in their cases. We recognise the criminal justice system did not reach expected standards on this occasion and, together with the police, we continue to look at ways to jointly enhance our victim communications.”