Cyclist who showed ‘no breath of remorse’ af ter killing woman faces jail
A CYCLIST was yesterday warned he faces jail despite being cleared of manslaughter after mowing down a mother of two, leaving her fatally injured.
Charlie Alliston, 20, was instead convicted of ‘wanton and furious driving’ which carries a maximum two-year sentence.
A judge told him he had not shown a ‘breath of remorse’ after hitting 44-yearold Kim Briggs at 18mph as she crossed Old Street in London.
Alliston was illegally riding a fixedwheel track bike with no front brakes.
Mrs Briggs, a human resources executive, suffered two skull fractures and bleeding to the brain. She never regained consciousness after the collision, and died a week later in hospital.
In a legal first, prosecutors brought a manslaughter charge due to the unusually grave circumstances.
Following an eight-day Old Bailey trial, Alliston was cleared of the more serious charge and released on bail.
Judge Wendy Joseph said: ‘I have not seen one iota of remorse from Mr Alliston…I have not seen one breath of remorse. I wish to make it absolutely plain that I have in mind a custodial sentence. He should not be under any illusion that I have in my mind some sort of community disposal.’
Former scaffolder Alliston had told the jury he worked as a cycle courier for ‘six to eight months’ prior to the collision.
But a Daily Mail investigation discovered that of the three companies he claimed employed him, he worked for one for only a day and another for just a week.
The third firm, Pink Express Ltd, had already been dissolved when he claimed to have worked for it.
In the hours and days after the crash Alliston posted comments online blaming the victim and falsely claiming she ignored his shouts and continued looking at her phone, the court heard.
Mrs Briggs’s husband Matt, 45, who attended every day of the trial, afterwards recalled the heartbreak of telling his children what had happened.
‘I had to bring my children to the hospital and tell them that Mummy would probably die,’ he said. ‘Over the next week my children had to say goodbye to their mother as she lay in the intensive care unit. Our world fell apart. I lost my wife and my best friend.’
During the trial, the court heard Alliston had an ‘Olympic-style’ track bike with no front brake, which should not have been ridden on the road. He bought the specialist Planet X fixed-wheel bike for £470 a few days before the collision, telling the seller he would use it only on tracks and not the road.
Mrs Briggs had gone for a walk at lunchtime near the office of genealogy website Find My Past where she worked. The jury was shown CCTV of the moment Alliston’s bike hit her.
Doctors at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, east London, performed two operations but were unable to save her as she had suffered an ‘extremely severe brain injury’.
Mrs Briggs died a week later, on February 19 last year.
Expert witnesses told the court a conventional bike with two brakes could have stopped within 4ft while Alliston’s bike would take 40ft to come to a halt. The cyclist was about 30ft from Mrs Briggs when he shouted at her.
The collision was reported by the London Evening Standard on the day. At 5pm – just four hours later – the cyclist posted on the newspaper’s website under the name CharlieFXckingA, writing: ‘I can put my hands up and say this is not my fault.’ He blamed Mrs Briggs for looking at her mobile phone and ignoring his shouts.
The next day he wrote on a cycling website called the London Fixed Gear and Single Speed Forum: ‘I won’t say she deserved it … it was her fault but no she did not deserve it. Hopefully it is a lesson to be learned on her behalf.’
On a chat group he added: ‘If you know the flame will hurt you, yet you still proceed to put your hand over it and get burnt, it’s your fault – I refuse to accept any responsibility in this whatsoever.
‘It’s not my fault people think they are invincible or just have zero respect for cyclists.’
Alliston claimed to have ridden track bikes since 2014, and in 2015 tweeted that taking the brakes off a previous bike was like being ‘in a Lucas Brunelle movie’. Brunelle is an American who makes stunt videos including ones featuring ‘alley cat racing’, where cyclists weave in and out of traffic, take risks and perform dangerous moves.
Duncan Penny, QC, prosecuting, told the trial: ‘What Mr Alliston is saying is, “I like taking risks”. He is saying he finds it exciting… If you are prepared to take a risk in the style of Lucas Brunelle, you are going to have to deal with stopping when hazards occur. To do something as dangerous as riding around on this bike is asking for trouble.’
The cyclist, of Bermondsey, south-east London, claimed to have suffered post-traumatic stress and depression after the accident. He is due to be sentenced on September 18.
Outside court, Mr Briggs, a company director, called for a change in cycling laws.
He said his world had ‘fallen apart’ following the loss of his wife, the mother of his 11-year-old daughter and son aged 14.
Mr Briggs recalled: ‘Perhaps our happiest times were on holiday in Scotland with the kids.’
He added: ‘Out of this senseless carnage I will try and bring change in the law…Perhaps in this way I can honour my wife.’
He said the law was ‘outdated’ and called for a ‘death by dangerous cycling’ offence.
On hearing about the family’s plight Prince Harry arranged to meet them at a rugby match earlier this year.
The family’s lawyer said they will pursue a civil claim for damages against Alliston.
‘Not seen one iota of remorse’ ‘This senseless carnage’