Major update in case of pedestrian jailed for 3 years for killing cyclist in clash over riding on pavement
A PARTIALLY blind woman with cerebral palsy has lodged an appeal against her jail sentence for causing the death of a cyclist in a clash over riding on the pavement.
Auriol Grey had been “shocked and devastated” by her three-year term imposed five days ago, and her legal team has now submitted an appeal on her behalf.
Shocking footage showed pedestrian Grey, 49, had gestured at grandma Celia Ward, 77, and told her to “get off the f***ing pavement” moments before she fell off her cycle and into road where she was killed by an oncoming car.
To her horror, she was charged with manslaughter but pleaded not guilty when she was put on trial.
In a re-trial – after the first jury failed to reach a verdict – she was found guilty and imprisoned for three years on Thursday last week by a judge at Peterborough Crown Court.
A spokesperson at the Criminal Appeal Court said today: “I can confirm that an appeal against the sentence imposed has been received by the Criminal Appeal Office in respect of Auriol Grey.
“The appeal application is now being processed accordingly.”
He stated that no date had yet been fixed for the hearing, adding: “The sentence appeal process has a timetable of five months.”
The accident happened as Grey – described as “childlike” and a “struggling loner” beset with health problems, walking on a deformed right foot – gestured to, and swore at the cyclist who was riding her bike on a path in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, on October 20, 2020.
The altercation caused the retired midwife to fall off her bike and into the path of a vehicle being driven by a mother returning from a playdate with her toddler son.
The court had previously heard that both council officials and police could not establish if the pavement was a shared cycle-way or not.
Single Grey, who suffers from cognitive, mobility and sight issues, was hoping to be given a suspended jail term at worst.
A legal source close to her defence team said: “She was warned she could face a custodial sentence but had been anticipating a suspended sentence.
“She is shocked and devastated by the outcome.
“Her barrister had desperately tried to get her out on bail while an appeal process was being put in place but it was a failed application.”
Judge Sean Enright, reportedly a keen cyclist, had told the defendant he could only impose an immediate jail term, telling her she “resented the presence of an oncoming cyclist.”
Grey’s barrister Miranda Moore, KC, had argued there was “no intention to cause harm.”
She said of her client: “She has nobody to support her apart from a friend and no family support at all. She has no financial support at all other than state benefits.
“If she goes to prison today she would lose her home and has no one to store her possessions. She doesn’t know what would happen to them.’
But the judge, sentencing Grey, said her actions were “not explained by disability.”
He said that Grey, of Huntingdon, had no mental disorder or learning difficulties and that the pavement was 2.4 metres wide at the relevant point, describing it as a “shared path on the ring road.”
Grey, who is estranged from her widowed mother and lost her elder sister to cancer two years ago, has been supported in her ordeal by a close friend.
A source close to her legal team told The Sun Online how Grey is a bit of a loner who is partially estranged from her mum.
They added: “She has no one in her life to help and support her, just one friend who has his own family but has been given her lifts to court.
“It is a very sad situation to be in.”
Her mum Verna Grey told The Sun she has “spent years” trying to “sort out” her estranged daughter.
The 86-year-old said it is a “difficult situation” for her.
Vera added: “I am hoping everything is alright.”
Paul Watkins, 63, whose mother-in-law Janice Harcourt is Grey’s aunt, said from his Carmarthenshire home: “This sentence seems far too harsh.
“I wasn’t in court so I didn’t hear the evidence for myself, but three years in prison seems too severe on the face of it.
“When you take into account that Auriol is disabled, part-blind and had no intention to kill the cyclist.
“It seems to me that poor Auriol should have been in some kind of care.
“I can’t help wondering if this kind of care in the community is a legacy of Margaret Thatcher’s years in power.
“It is a very, very sad story all round – for the cyclist, the driver and for Auriol.
“I don’t see who benefits from sending her to jail.”