Pedestrian who swore at cyclist and caused her to fall into path of car loses appeal

A woman jailed for manslaughter after shouting at a cyclist who then fell into the road and was killed by an oncoming car has had an appeal against her three-year jail sentence rejected

- TOM PILGRIM

Auriol Grey, 49, shouted at retired midwife Celia Ward to “get off the fucking pavement” in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, causing her to fall into the road in an incident that was captured on CCTV. Ms Ward, a 77-year-old grandmother of Wyton, Cambridgeshire, died after she was struck by a car on 20 October 2020.

Judges ruled that Grey’s sentence was not excessive – despite her suffering with disabilities. In an interview with police following the incident, Grey told officers she believed that cyclists should “purely” stay on the road and not the footpath. Grey denied manslaughter but was found guilty after a retrial at Peterborough Crown Court and was jailed for three years in March.

She has cerebral palsy and partial blindness, and her lawyers argued that the sentence was “excessive”, adding that an autism diagnosis secured after her trial may have made a difference in her case. But Mr Justice Griffiths, sitting with Lord Justice William Davis and Judge Neil Flewitt, refused to grant permission for Ms Grey to appeal against her sentence, concluding it was “not arguably manifestly excessive”.

He said the sentence passed “had to mark the gravity of the unlawful killing” while taking into account mitigating factors, such as Grey’s disabilities. Miranda Moore KC, representing Grey, in the “very unusual” case, earlier told the court that a suspended sentence would have been “appropriate”.