Co-accused said he had nothing to do with fatal collision
AJURY in the trial of three men accused of the murder of motorcyclist David Crawford in Plymouth heard how the president of Bandidos Motorcycle Club – one of those jointly accused of the killing – said he felt sorry for the victim.
David Crawford, from Ivybridge, died after his black Kawasaki motorbike was struck from behind by a Ford Transit van on the A38 on-slip at St Budeaux junction on the evening of May 12. At the time he was stationary, alongside a black Mercedes which had pulled up alongside him on the on-slip.
Benjamin Parry, aged 42, of Wright Close in Devonport, was driving the van at the time, while Chad Brading, aged 36, of Wright Close, Devonport, and Thomas Pawley, aged 32, of Heather Walk, Ivybridge, were in the Mercedes car. All three have denied the charge of murder by joint enterprise.
The jury previously heard how Mr Crawford was a member of the Red Chiefs Motorcycle Club (MC) – affiliated to the more notorious Hells Angels gang – whereas Parry, Brading and Pawley were all members of the rival Bandidos Motorcycle Club (MC).
The jury at Plymouth Crown Court listened as junior prosecution counsel Simon Jones and Det Sgt Joe Mercer read out the interview with Brading following his second arrest in June this year. Brading had been identified as the president of the Plymouth chapter of the Bandidos MC, whilst Parry was the secretary and Pawley the ‘road captain’.
During the interview, Brading claimed that while he was in the Mercedes he had dropped his phone in his lap and effectively sat there with an “open line” while Parry was speaking on the phone in the cab of the Ford Transit in the lead-up to the collision. In response to questions from the officer whether Parry was “talking to nobody”, he said this was correct, adding: “I didn’t even realise he was on the phone. I wasn’t even on the phone to him. I dropped the phone in my lap – I don’t know where it went, I didn’t have it in my possession.”
Questioned about why the Mercedes turned back along the A38 heading east from the Tamar Bridge, just a few yards behind Mr Crawford on his black Kawasaki, Brading claimed that Mr Crawford “came off the A38 [at the St Budeaux junction] because he knew he was being followed”.
Asked how Mr Crawford knew he was being followed, Brading replied: “Well, he has mirrors, hasn’t he?” He then suggested that such questioning was irrelevant. Asked about the collision, and how Parry had ended up on the same slip-road at exactly the same time as he and Pawley had pulled up alongside Mr Crawford, he told police “I was nothing to do with it – I wasn’t coordinating any of it”.
Brading said he had two daughters and he just wanted to “go home and see my girls”. He said he did not join a motorcycle club to commit murder, saying he joined to “have fun”.
He added he felt sorry for Mr Crawford “...and now he’s dead.”
Brading said he thought Parry had made a “massive mistake”, saying Mr Crawford’s death was “a terrible tragedy”. He said the Mercedes pulled up in front of the motorbike by around 20 feet and the motorbike stopped and then pulled up alongside the car.
He said Mr Crawford looked at the men in the Mercedes and then the white van “came out of nowhere”. Accused of directing Parry to the location, Brading replied “absolutely not”.
He suggested that “hypothetically” if he was to orchestrate such an act he would not use a vehicle which everyone knew had a dashcam and cab-cam in it, and using their own mobile phones throughout, adding “we’re not idiots”, intimating that they “watched TV” and knew of these things. He said such an act would be “absolute madness”, saying “the things you’re throwing at me is barking mad.”
He said Parry had “100% acted alone”. He said he could “not get my head around it”.
Accused of being in charge of the plan to target a Red Chiefs club member, noting that he was the president of the Plymouth chapter of the rival Bandidos MC, Brading said “absolutely not... it was all on him [Parry] – no one else knew what he was going to do”.
Asked what happened to his mobile phone used in the Mercedes, Brading admitted he had lost it at an “inflatable park” in Ivybridge he attended with one of his daughters, a day or so after the collision – and one day before he handed himself in to police at Charles Cross police station. He admitted he had not reported it lost or stolen, did not use any phone-finder apps, did not try to locate it nor contact his phone provider. Instead, he borrowed a phone for a short period of time before buying a new SIM card from the Co-op and using an old spare phone, the court heard.
The trial continues.