A woman who shouted and waved at a cyclist, causing her to fall in front of a car, has had her manslaughter conviction overturned. Auriol Grey, who has cerebral palsy and is partially blind, was jailed for three years in 2023, following the incident in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. But yesterday, the court of appeal overturned the 50-year-old’s conviction; her lawyers said she was a vulnerable pedestrian who ‘should never have been charged’. Grey’s family responded by saying ‘we hope lessons will be learned.’
This is a tragic case in which there are no winners
This is a tragic case in which there are no winners. In October 2020, Grey was walking along a pavement when a 77-year-old cyclist, Celia Ward, attempted to pass her. CCTV footage showed that, rather than seeking to get out of the way, Grey gesticulated at Ward, shouting ‘get off the fucking pavement’. Ward subsequently fell off her bike into the road and into the path of a car. The driver had no chance to stop, or take evasive action. Ward sustained catastrophic injuries. Sadly, she died at the scene.
A prosecution for what is known as unlawful act manslaughter was brought against Grey and, following a retrial, she was convicted and sent to prison. During the course of the trial and sentencing, the judge indicated that her actions were not explained by her disability.
The prosecution case was that the ‘hostile reaction’ by Grey to Ward cycling on the pavement was unlawful. It had caused Ward to fall off her bike and into the carriageway, resulting in her death. The words ‘get off the fucking pavement’ were said to have characterised Grey’s mindset of ‘hostility to cyclists riding on pavements.’
While the evidence showed that Grey had gesticulated or waved at Ward, there was no evidence that she had actually pushed, or in any way touched her.
Pedestrians and cyclists may have had shared access to the pavement in question, although the Court of Appeal noted that remarkably that fact ‘was never clearly established one way or another at trial.’
Grey appealed against her conviction. At the appeal hearing, the central question was whether any unlawful act (sometimes called a ‘base offence’) had occurred to cause Ward’s death. The appellant’s team argued that neither the trial judge, nor the parties, had identified any such act during the trial and that no such base offence had been proven. Accordingly, the defence team said that ‘the factual elements which were left to the jury were insufficient in law for a conviction for manslaughter to follow.’
Grey spent a year in prison
In response, the barrister for the Crown contended that the jury had been directed by the trial judge in such a way that they would have naturally concluded that Grey had committed a common assault (the relevant ‘base offence’) which had led to the death. He therefore argued that the conviction was not unsafe.
The Court of Appeal judgment acknowledged that Ward’s death ‘was a tragedy and the circumstances of it were horrific.’ It also recognised the huge distress caused to her family and the fact that the death had merited a proper investigation of any criminal responsibility. Nonetheless, the judgment, which was delivered by Dame Victoria Sharpe (the President of the King’s Bench Division), highlighted the fact that had Ward not died, it was ‘inconceivable that the appellant would ever have been charged with assault in circumstances where it could not be established that she had made any physical contact with the cyclist.’
The judgment also noted that the trial judge’s legal directions to the jury had ‘contained fundamental and material misdirections of law.’ Dame Victoria concluded that the prosecution case had been insufficient even to be left to the jury and that:
‘In all the circumstances, we have no hesitation in concluding that the appellant’s conviction for manslaughter is unsafe.’
Having quashed the conviction, the Court of Appeal refused an application to allow the Crown to retry the case. While the case does not set any significant new legal precedent, people will no doubt seek to learn lessons from the outcome. Grey spent a year in prison and her family has argued that vulnerable people need better support from the justice system.
At the time of the incident, the police argued that road users needed to ‘take care and be considerate of each other’. The case triggered a furious online debate between cyclists and pedestrians. Following the judgment, Grey’s legal team said that the accident would never have happened if a cycle path had been in place separating vulnerable pedestrians from cyclists.
Perhaps the most important lesson is that not every tragedy merits a criminal prosecution. The criminal law cannot always ascribe guilt, even in circumstances where a person’s actions contribute to a calamity. However much people may look for someone to blame, sometimes an accident is simply an accident. Prosecutors should not forget that fact, even where they are put under pressure for something to be done in the light of a catastrophic event.
Why a disabled pedestrian had her cyclist manslaughter conviction quashed
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1
09.05.2024
A woman who shouted and waved at a cyclist, causing her to fall in front of a car, has had her manslaughter conviction overturned. Auriol Grey, who has cerebral palsy and is partially blind, was jailed for three years in 2023, following the incident in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. But yesterday, the court of appeal overturned the 50-year-old’s conviction; her lawyers said she was a vulnerable pedestrian who ‘should never have been charged’. Grey’s family responded by saying ‘we hope lessons will be learned.’
This is a tragic case in which there are no winners
This is a tragic case in which there are no winners. In October 2020, Grey was walking along a pavement when a 77-year-old cyclist, Celia Ward, attempted to pass her. CCTV footage showed that, rather than seeking to get out of the way, Grey gesticulated at Ward, shouting ‘get off the fucking pavement’. Ward subsequently fell off her bike into the road and into the path of a car. The driver had no chance to stop, or take evasive action. Ward sustained catastrophic injuries. Sadly, she died at the scene.
A prosecution for what is known as unlawful act manslaughter was brought against Grey and, following a retrial, she was convicted and sent to prison. During the course of the trial and sentencing,........
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