Trial hears how biker met his fate because of gang feud
THREE motorcycle gang members ran over a lone biker and killed him after spotting him riding on their patch wearing “rival” club colours, a trial has been told.
David Crawford, 59, from Ivybridge, Devon, was killed on the evening of May 12 this year when he was hit from behind by a white van on the St Budeaux slip road in Plymouth, and dragged some distance down the A38.
Benjamin Parry, 42, of Wright Close, Devonport; Thomas Pawley, 32, from Heather Walk, Ivybridge; and Chad Brading, 36, of Wright Close, Devonport, deny his murder.
At a trial at Plymouth Crown Court, Paul Cavin, prosecuting, said Mr Crawford had been the victim of a “joint plan” concocted by the trio who were “intent on violent conflict”.
The men claim they only wanted to “talk to” Mr Crawford about the perceived slight over his outfit, a matter they said was considered to be “disrespectful”. Parry, who hit Mr Crawford in his white work van, claims he “only intended to bump the back of his bike”.
Mr Crawford, jurors were told, was a member of the Red Chiefs Motorcycle Club’s Cornwall chapter, while the defendants were a part of the Bandidos Motorcycle Club, Plymouth branch.
Opening the trial, Mr Cavin said: “Mr Crawford was on a motorcycle and it is the crown’s case that he had been followed and stopped by the other two defendants [Brading and Pawley], who were driving a black Mercedes, as part of a joint plan.
“Mr Parry, driving his work van, entered the slipway and drove deliberately, at speed, into the back of Mr Crawford’s stationary bike.
“Mr Crawford was struck, wedged under Mr Parry’s van and dragged down the A38 until his body comes free at the next junction.”
Jury members were then shown “brutal” video footage of the incident which was taken on the dash camera of Parry’s van. In it, Parry can be seen driving on to the slip road while appearing to talk on the phone to Brading through his wireless headphones. As he sees his friend’s Mercedes and Mr Crawford’s motorcycle, he speeds up.
Mr Cavin said: “It is clear from his facial expression that Mr Parry has seen his target.”
Mr Crawford shoots into the air as he is hit by Parry from behind, before disappearing beneath the van. When Parry exits at the next junction, the van is seen to jolt, which is the moment prosecutors say Mr Crawford’s body was released from under the van.
Mr Cavin said the jury would hear during the trial from a lip-reading expert who has analysed the footage, which has no sound, and believes that, at the moment Parry enters the slip road and sees Mr Crawford, he says “oh man” or “oh mate”, and then “watch this”.
Other motorists were left to make the “grim discovery” of Mr Crawford’s body, Mr Cavin said. “He had sustained massive injuries,” he added.
Parry was interviewed by the police later that night under suspicion of murder and wrote in a prepared statement that he “only intended to bump the back of his bike” and “did not intend to kill him”.
Pawley, the owner of the Mercedes, was arrested in the early hours of the next day, having been found hiding in his home’s attic, and told detectives: “I can’t believe he [Parry] did it.”
He admitted they were a part of the Bandidos gang, which he said was an international group second in popularity only to the Hell’s Angels, and that their chapter had only been going for around 18 months and had nine members.
He claimed they did not have a problem with the Red Chiefs or any other bike gang, but said it was generally considered to be disrespectful to ride wearing your colours on someone else’s patch.
Brading handed himself in to Plymouth’s Charles Cross Police Station the following day and described the incident as a “massive miscalculation by Parry”.
Mr Cavin said: “What it reveals is that the presence of the Red Chiefs in Devon was considered to be provocative by them [the defendants]. It is clear that they were intent on having a confrontation from the outset.”
“There is no doubt this was an attack by members of one motorcycle gang on a member of another motorcycle gang,” he added.
Brading was said to have had a baseball bat at his feet during the incident, and when the Mercedes was searched police found an extendable baton and hammer in the boot, as well as an unopened hammer on the back seat.
The jury viewed a compilation of CCTV footage which the prosecution said showed the defendants prior to the incident covertly watching the group of Red Chiefs who had gathered outside Costa Coffee in the Gateway Retail Park, Plymouth.
Pawley and Brading are also shown to have followed another lone biker, who they lost, before tracking the rest of the Red Chiefs group across the Cornwall border.
The trial continues.