Children forced on to road to avoid man driving on pavement

‘Sheer luck’ pupils not hurt by dangerous driver

A man who drove for 300 yards at speed along a pavement outside a school – causing pupils to run into the middle of a busy road to avoid being run down – is facing a lengthy jail term.

Unemployed Geoffrey Goto was trying to escape from police who had pulled him over on Lawton Road, Dundee.

The unlicensed and uninsured driver had been spotted by an officer who had witnessed an earlier case of dangerous driving by him.

Goto’s lawyer tried to argue that the identification evidence of two officers who had pulled him over in the earlier incident was unreliable because Goto is black and it was dark when they saw him, saying it would be “harder for them to identify his features”.

But a jury disagreed, leaving Goto facing a considerable prison term when he is sentenced next month.

Depute fiscal Eilidh Robertson told the jury: “It was only through sheer luck that no one was injured or even worse.”

Dundee Sheriff Court heard yesterday that, in the school incident, Goto’s car and description had been circulated by an officer who had seen him nearby.

PC Sean Petrie, 25, said they then spotted Goto’s Ford Fiesta outside the then-temporary base of Harris Academy on Lawton Road.

He said: “As I approached he began to reverse backwards. There was a lollipop man helping children cross in the middle of the road and he stopped just short of him. He then mounted the pavement; he travelled along it for about 300 yards towards the junction with Byron Street.

“It was a sharp acceleration – he was going quick. There were children about and I saw a group of four schoolchildren walking towards his direction who had to take evasive action to avoid a collision. Two or three of them had to run into the carriageway to avoid the vehicle.”

Goto, 31, of Hoylake Place, Dundee, denied 12 charges on indictment, including two of dangerous driving – one committed on January 9 last year and the other on June 6 – as well as one of police assault, one of resisting arrest and eight other road traffic offences. But a jury found him guilty of all 12 charges.

Sheriff George Way deferred sentence for social work background reports and released Goto on bail. He said: “These are very grave matters. Children were required to scatter. He has to understand the almost-inevitable penalty for that has to be prison.”

There were children about and I saw a group of four schoolchildren walking towards his direction who had to take evasive action to avoid a collision. PC SEAN PETRIE

Father-of-three Geoffrey Goto will be sentenced next month.