A MOTORIST accused of trying to “avoid detection by the police” after involvement in a fatal A66 crash in which a pedestrian died has gone on trial.
Carlisle Crown Court has heard how an eastbound BMW 1 series driven by Matthew Paul Leggett collided with James Greenwood, who was crossing the road in darkness at Braithwaite, near Keswick, on foot at around 12-30am on April 7 last year while heading back to a camp site with friends.
Mr Greenwood – who was aged 61 and also known as Jimmy – suffered serious injuries which proved fatal. “Matthew Leggett did not stop to find out how Mr Greenwood was,” alleged prosecutor Barbara Webster as Leggett’s trial began this afternoon (MON). “He didn’t help him or even leave his details with the other people at the scene. Mr Greenwood was left to die at the scene.”
Leggett, 24, stands accused, following the collision, of doing “a number of acts that could only have been intended to pervert the course of justice”, Miss Webster told jurors.
It is alleged he drove 12 miles from the crash scene in a BMW which had a “shattered” windscreen “without providing his details to anyone present”, and “abandoned” the vehicle at secluded Setmurthy Woods, near Cockermouth, with the lights and radio still on, and the keys inside.
He is alleged to have “discarded” his mobile phone – which was never recovered – after using it to contact his best friend to take him to an address in Cockermouth. “The prosecution’s case is that this was all to avoid detection by the police,” Miss Webster alleged.
Leggett, of Sonnets Way, Cockermouth, denies one charge alleging that he did acts tending and intended to pervert the course of public justice on April 7, 2018. He faces no charges in relation to the collision with Mr Greenwood, from Market Drayton, Shropshire. The trial continues.
