Biker escapes jail sentence

It was only after the verdict it emerged the biker hadn’t stopped after the collision to give his name and address and that he failed to report the smash to police within 24 hours.

He also had no insurance for his machine, the court was told.

The accused, of Linden Avenue, Newport-onTay, had denied driving dangerously on the A922, in South Street, Milnathort, on August 31, 2017, failing to observe the youngster as she crossed the road and collided with her, knocking her to the ground.

Restricting the charge to one of careless driving, Cooper was also found guilty of driving away from the smash at excessive speed but an allegation that he overtook a moving van in an area where traffic was limited to 20mph was deleted.

The jury of nine men and six women only considered the dangerous driving charge.

The accused had pled guilty to the other three motoring offences before the trial began.

On the opening day of the trial, a farmer described how he saw a motorbike “speeding out of Milnathort” and travelling at more than double the 30mph limit.

Thirty-one-year-old Alastair Young said he didn’t think too much about it until he saw a report on social media two or three days later about an accident which had taken place in the village and he contacted the police.

Mr Young said he was saw the blue, black and white bike heading east out of Milnathort as he drove in the opposite direction to go to the shops.

He described it as “travelling extremely fast.”

He added: “It was definitely going above the speed limit - the speed limit is 30.

“It must have been going over 60,” he estimated.

He only saw it for around five seconds - “it happened so fast,” he recalled.

He was later shown photographs of a motorbike and said they “looked like” the bike he had driven past that day.

Two or three days later he saw something on either Facebook or Twitter about an accident and he gave a statement to the police.