A motoring menace badly hurt during a police chase will be sentenced by a Lancashire judge because Carlisle court staff cannot deal with his limited mobility if he is jailed.
Lee Irwin, aged 50, admits riding a powerful Suzuki GSX 1300 motorbike dangerously and while over the drink-drive limit during a pursuit in Carlisle on November 3.
Magistrates heard last month that a police officer initially spotted Irwin riding at high speed on Botchergate, heading towards London Road.
That officer performed a U-turn and followed Irwin as he travelled on to Blackwell Road. Irwin exceeded the speed limit, clipped a kerb and failed to stop when required to do so. He also travelled at high speeds around a housing estate with 20mph and 30mph zones and rode through a number of red lights.
A 3km journey ended as his Suzuki tyres were punctured, using a police stinger, on London Road. As he lost control, Irwin suffered serious lower limb injuries.
In court last month, Irwin admitted six offences: dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, no insurance, fail to stop, driving with excess alcohol and possession of a class A controlled drug.
Magistrates heard he was banned from driving for four years, in 2016, but remained disqualified as he had yet to pass a mandatory extended re-test. They sent the case to Carlisle Crown Court, where Irwin, of Rydal Street in the city was due to have been sentenced today.
As his case was called on, Irwin walked into court using crutches and with a protective metal cage around his right leg. He had, said defence lawyer, Jeff Smith, sustained ‘life-changing injuries’.
Judge Nicholas Barker said an immediate prison sentence was possible, so serious were the offences. But he pondered the logistics of Irwin leaving the dock and using a staircase leading down to court cells for transfer to custody.
Mr Smith said: “My instructions are that he will find it virtually impossible to walk down the stairs.”
There is a lift for court users linking public areas of the Earl Street building’s ground and higher floors, but no such facility in custody.
“Those that designed these courts in the late 1990s clearly didn’t know that people with mobility issues would have to go into custody,” reflected Judge Barker, “otherwise they might have built a lift.”
The judge observed that immediate custody was a possible punishment. But he told Irwin the case would be transferred to Preston Crown Court — which has better facilities — because Carlisle was “not well equipped to deal with your sentence with your mobility issues”.
Irwin is due to be punished by a Preston judge on a future date, and remains on bail in the meantime.
