Author: Sonja Francis

A 26-year-old man has been sentenced to five years? imprisonment for causing death by dangerous driving.

Sammy Edwards, from Lake House, Marsh, near Aylesbury, was found guilty at Reading Crown Court today (16/9), of causing the death by dangerous driving of 18-year-old Greg Stiles in May 2009. He was sentenced to five years? imprisonment.

At about 2.40pm on Sunday 17 May, Greg Stiles and his girlfriend Abigail Dowdy were travelling in a blue Ford Fiesta on the A4129, Risborough Road, from Kingsey to Longwick. Edwards was driving a blue BMW X5 and dangerously overtook three cars at high speed, forcing Greg Stiles to take avoiding action resulting in him swerving into another vehicle. He was pronounced dead at the scene and Abigail was taken to the John Radcliffe Hospital with serious injuries, which she recovered from.

Edwards did not stop at the scene of the collision. After extensive witness appeals and a thorough investigation by the Roads Policing Department, Edwards was arrested on 27 May 2009. Officers continued to gather evidence to prove Edwards was responsible for the collision and he was charged in February 2010.

PC Phil Hanham, Senior Investigating Officer, said: ?Edwards?s vehicle made no contact in the collision and failed to stop at the scene, therefore officers had no physical evidence to tie Edwards or his vehicle to the collision. The investigation team relied on good investigation techniques using CCTV from various locations in Buckinghamshire, ANPR and mobile phone data downloads to prove Edwards was at the scene and caused the collision in which Greg died.

?Edwards has never taken responsibility for his actions and changed his story in interview three times in an attempt to evade justice. I am pleased he has been sent to prison for causing the death on an 18-year-old man with his whole life ahead of him, and seriously injuring another person. I hope he has time to reflect on the pain and devastation he has caused Greg?s family and friends.?

PHOTO: Sam Edwards

A pensioner charged with causing the death of a Thame teacher by dangerous driving, was committed to Oxford Crown Court today by Banbury magistrates today.

Sally Rundle, 72, was involved in the collision that fatally injured Ellie Bongers, 32, a teacher at Lord Willians’s school, Thame, and seriously injured her 19 month-old son Joseph who later died.

The collision happened on the A4260 at Tackley on December 20, 2009.

Ms Rundle, of Oxford Road, Bodicote, Banbury, is due to appear on September 20. She was released on unconditional bail.

PHOTO: The late Ellie Bongers

THE two opposing lawyers in the trial of a man charged with the death of Thame teenager, Greg Stiles by dangerous driving, have today been summing up.

The Prosecution’s case

The main points for the prosecution by Mr Neil Moore for the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service), included his asking the jury to contrast the the quality of the attitude and evidence of the “honest and public spirited” witnesses who came forward as a result of the police appeal, with that of the defendant’s brother, Terry Edwards. He, (Terry Edwards)said Mr Moore, appeared to have had vital evidence that could have potentially helped his younger brother, the defendant Sammy Edwards, but did not come forward.

Referring to Terry Edwards’ evidence in court yesterday, Mr Moore said of him, that, having “nailed his colours to the mast” by giving a time that he saw his younger brother in their father’s house on the morning of the collision: “…he (Terry Edwards) then broadened his timing, once he heard that his brother wasn’t in the house when he (Terry) said he had asked Sammy for a lift to Thame.”

“He just does not have the qualities of the other prosecution witnesses,” concluded Mr Moore.

He called the defendant, Sammy Edwards, “A weak and inadequate man in many ways,” and accused him of continually blaming others for his behaviour. Edwards, he said: “…blamed his father for telling him to lie about being in the car, his solicitor for telling him to answer “No comment” to all questions in subsequent statement to the police, and then an unknown ‘someone else’ for his answers of “no comment” in his Defence statement.

“Finally, he had the audacity to suggest that Greg Stiles was responsible for his own death, and the injuries to his girlfriend! It’s always someone else’s fault according to him.”

It is alleged that Sammy Edwards’ actions in overtaking three cars in the way that he did, forced Greg Stile’s car coming in the other direction, off the road and then to spin into the side of the second car, killing him.

Mr Moore added: “I invite you to conclude that the defendant’s driving fell far below that of a safe and competent driver. His immediate future, the importance to the public at large as well as to Greg Stiles’ family, demands that if you the jury are sure that it was this that caused this offence, it must be punished.”

The Defence case

The main points put to the jury by Defence barrister, Mr Ben Maguire included the submission that Sammy Edwards now accepted that he had lied to police in the first instance by denying that he was driving the blue BMW X5 on the morning of the collision, and suggested that “lies do not always mean guilt.”

“The defendant,” said Mr Maguire, has not been dealt much in the way of brains and is therefore susceptible to appalling advice such as that given by his father.”

“It had been suggested to him that the investigation might have taken on the appearance of some sort of ‘witch hunt’ which made him feel that the investigation might not be totally fair. Then having lied, he felt trapped by that lie,” suggested Mr Maguire. “He is telling the truth now,” concluded Mr Maguire.

Mr Maguire told the jury that they could not be certain about some of the assertions made by the Prosecution that they, the jury could “be sure of.”

He referred in particular to a conflict of evidence about the colour of the vehicle involved in the road-rage incident reported after the collision. Some witnesses had, he said, described a vehicle of a different colour and type to that of the blue BMW X5.

He asserted that there were differences in witness accounts of whether and when they could see Greg Stiles’ car coming towards them, and whether or not Sammy Edwards was seen to drive his car over into the on-coming carriageway before the collision.

Mr Maguire also urged the jury to consider the evidence of an off-duty police officer, who said that he saw the blue BMW 5X in Stoke Mandeville six and a half minutes before CCTV showed it to be in the Eden Centre car park, 17 miles away – a journy, he suggested, would have taken at least 25 minutes.

He also asked the jury to consider, what he called, “the understandable pressure on the police, the witnesses and the jury when someone has died, to want to apportion blame,” and urged them to reach their verdict “based on cold impartiality based on the facts.”

Mr Maguire concluded: “We invite you to conclude that the Prosecution has failed to make you sure that Sammy Edwards was guilty of dangerous driving; that you conclude that you cannot be sure about many things you have been asked to be sure about.”

The jury is expected to retire to consider its verdict tomorrow, Thursday, once the judge, Mary Jane Mowatt, has completed her summing up.

PHOTO: Courtesy of GetReading.co.uk

THE A4129, Tythrope Way, Thame Eastern by-pass was closed in both directions for several hours today, due to burst water main and flooding near its junction with Cromwell Avenue, Thame.

All vehicles, including heavy goods vehicles, were diverted around via Cromwell Avenue, East.

This picture was taken by Cromwell Avenue resident, Bill McCarthy, whose garden and greenhouse were temporarily inundated with several inches of water.

A MAN accused of causing the death of Thame teenager, Greg Stiles by dangerous driving, admitted in court today that he lied when he denied being the driver of the car suspected of causing the fatal crash.

Under questioning by prosecuting barrister, Neil Moore, 24 year-old Sammy Edwards, of Marsh, near Aylesbury, told Reading Crown Court that he had been given “bad Advice” by his father to deny being the driver of car to police, because: “I didn’t want them to frame me for what I hadn’t done.”

He now wanted to tell the truth, he said, because he realised he was “digging a big hole” and making things “a hundred times worse” for himself.

Edwards told the court how he drove his father’s blue BMW X5 along the A4129 Kingsey Road towards Thame, on Sunday, May 17, 2009, and decided to overtake three cars infront of him. He described how he overtook the first two cars, pulled partly in between the second car, a Corsa, and the front car, a Yaris, before checking that the road ahead was still clear, before completing the manoeuvre and successfully overtaking the Yaris.

When questioned by Mr Moore, Edwards denied that he had hesitated before overtaking the third car. He went on to describe how he then saw a blue car (Greg Stile’s Ford Fiesta)coming towards him on the opposite carriageway, with the driver shaking his hand at Edwards in an obscene gesture.

Edwards denied looking in his mirror after the incident and denied being aware that there had been a collision shortly afterwards, as he (Edwards said) would have been “round the corner” by the time it happened.

Mr Moore told Edwards: “I suggest you pulled out right in front of Mr Stiles, either to put the frighteners on him or in a risky manoeuvre.” To this Edwards replied: “If he wasn’t going so fast he wouldn’t have crashed! He was going over 100 miles an hour.”

Edwards denied continuing to drive in a dangerous way, of overtaking another four vehicles, including a horse box further along the road, as seen by witnesses, and of getting out of his car on the ring road and “giving aggrow” to another driver.

After hearing evidence from Sammy Edwards’ elder brother, Terry, who both brothers said in court was a passenger in the car at the time of the incident, Mr Moore sugggested that this was “a lie”. His reasoning was that Sammy Edwards had not mentioned the fact that his brother was in the car, until August 9, during his third or fourth interview with Police, nor had his brother Terry come forward in his younger brother’s defence until shortly before the case came to court.

Terry Edwards in his defence said that he had not come forward because he was never asked to by anyone, and that he had expected to be “pulled in” for questioning. He added: “It was clear from day one that the police had clearly decided Sam did it.”

Mr Moore concluded: “The truth is, you (Terry) were not in that car, and you have been asked to come along to help your brother!”

Terry Edwards emphatically replied that this was not the case and that he had asked his brother for a lift to the Skate Park in Thame where he hoped to see his two estranged sons who regularly went there.

The case continues tomorrow.

THAME police has promised that traffic regulations will not be enforced on “the dodgems” at Thame fair this year.

For helpful advice on this and other aspects of having a good time at Thame fair this year, Thame Valley Police have issued this video on youtube:

Thame_Fair_video

The fair will take place in the centre of Thame this Thurs, Fri and Saturday (16-18/9).

PHOTO by: vicky.inglis

WORK on a television transmitter at Beckley is set to cause some disruption to reception across Oxfordshire, including the Thame area.

The work is in preparation for the area’s digital switchover in 2011, and is expected to cause daytime disruption between today, Monday and Wednesday, September 15, 2010. It was made necessary by a fire that destroyed much of the newly installed mast in May.