Driver who hit cyclist guilty

Disqualified after judge believes witness’ account of crash Man faces more charges of secretly filming women

A judge has found a Letts Gully man guilty of careless driving causing injury after he collided with a cyclist while overtaking him.

Jason Shawn McFadyen, 40, appeared in the Alexandra District Court yesterday before Judge Stephen Coyle to defend the charge after being involved in a crash on July 17.

The victim, Thomas Jamieson, 70, was cycling the 15km trip from Hawea Flat to Wanaka to pick up groceries, something he did twice a week, when the crash happened.

‘‘I was just cycling along then all of a sudden I was eating the dirt on the side of the road in the gravel,’’ Mr Jamieson said.

He was adamant he did not swerve on to the road into the path of McFadyen’s vehicle.

Reginald Hall, who witnessed the incident while driving towards Lake Hawea, said he saw Mr Jamieson biking on the verge of the road, on the tarseal, to the left of the fog line.

He noticed two cars travelling behind Mr Jamieson about 50m apart and pulled his car to the left of the road to allow room for them to pass Mr Jamieson.

The first vehicle pulled to the centre of the road to pass but the second vehicle, belonging to McFadyen, did not and struck Mr Jamieson, Mr Hall said.

’’It looked quite serious. He was thrown into the air and tumbled on the road,’’ he said.

Mr Jamieson suffered bruising and sore ribs in the crash.

McFadyen, an experienced driver and a cyclist, said he did pull out to give Mr Jamieson room but ‘‘he [Mr Jamieson] just all of a sudden pulled out’’ and struck the side of his vehicle.

Judge Coyle said if McFadyen had given the recommended 1.5m space between a vehicle and a cyclist when passing, the crash would not have happened, and he believed Mr Hall’s evidence that McFadyen did not pull out and give Mr Jamieson some space.

The judge said he had no doubt McFadyen was a responsible and experienced driver and it had been a ‘‘moment of carelessness’’ that caused the crash. He fined McFadyen $200 and disqualified him from driving for six months. A man accused of being a serial peeping Tom who spied on women in shopping malls, cinemas and fastfood outlets has had more charges of covert filming filed against him.

Luke Tyron Day, 26, appeared in the Auckland District Court yesterday facing 12 new charges of making intimate visual recordings.

He was already facing a charge of making an intimate visual recording, assault and entering a building with the intent to commit a crime and seven charges of intent to insult by performing an indecent act on women during each incident.

One of his alleged victims was just 11 years old.

Day was remanded on bail after first appearing in court last month, but was arrested the next day after attempting to flee New Zealand, the court was told yesterday. He was arrested after management at a mall in central Auckland laid a formal complaint with police and provided them with surveillance footage.

Kun Lu, the mall’s operations manager, said a shopper complained that a man had filmed and watched her from over the top of a toilet stall while she was in the toilet.

As well as performing an ‘‘indecent act’’, he is also charged with assaulting the woman ‘‘with the intent to facilitate the flight of himself’’ after being caught filming her.

Day also allegedly sneaked into the public toilets and committed ‘‘indecent acts’’ at Burger King, Event Cinemas and shopping malls around Auckland.