I have no information other than what I’ve read and seen in the media but the story seems to be that Gray, aged 49, who is partially sighted and suffers from cerebral palsy, was walking along what looks, from the not very good security footage, to have been a very narrow pavement when she saw 77-year-old cyclist Celia Ward riding towards her.
By all accounts Grey swore at Ward, told her to get off the pavement and according to the BBC ‘gestured in an "aggressive way” towards her.’ She didn’t assault her, didn’t push her, didn’t touch her, but Ward fell off the bike, off pavement, into the road, into the path of a car, and was killed.
Grey got three years, though she’s apparently appealing against the sentence.
After the trial one Detective Sergeant Dollard (I wonder what his nickname is) said: 'Everyone will have their own views of cyclists on pavements and cycleways, but what is clear is Grey's response to the presence of Celia on a pedal cycle was totally disproportionate and ultimately found to be unlawful.'
It’s a terrible and tragic case all round but the reason it stays with me is because on at least a couple of occasions I believe I may have sworn at cyclists who I thought were going to run into me. Whether I’ve gestured at them I’m not sure, but I may well have. Of course these cyclists didn’t fall off the bikes to their death, but who can say whether my swearing and gesturing was proportionate, disproportion or ‘totally disproportionate?’ I think some clarification might be necessary.
Of course I have also been sworn at by cyclists.
Worst of all according to the BBC report,‘The trial was told that police could not "categorically" state whether the pavement was a shared cycleway.’ To which one might reasonably ask, ‘Why the hell not?’
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