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Hertfordshire Mercury
Posted: July 15, 2016
By Sam Meadows, Hertfordshire Mercury |
Jonathan Aicken died on Christmas Eve in 2014
A driver who covered up a crash in Roydon which killed Harlow motorcyclist Jonathan Aicken has been handed a suspended prison sentence.
Lucy-Jane Williams, 27, of Fillingham Way, Hatfield, pleaded guilty to doing acts tending to pervert the course of justice, failing to stop and failing to report an accident.
She was given a 14 month jail sentence suspended for 18 months at Chelmsford Crown Court.
Williams was also ordered to carry out 200 hours unpaid work and disqualified from driving for 12 months. No costs or compensation were imposed.
Sentencing her, Recorder Maryam Syed said: “Following a collision you failed to stop and went home to Hatfield.
“You must have realised you struck something and struck something more than an animal.”
Her friend Sally Beach, 27, of Cherry Way, Hatfield, and her father Richard Williams, 52, of Homestead Road, Hatfield, who had been involved in the cover-up have received police cautions and charges of perverting the course of justice against them were dropped.
Williams had admitted assisting in the disposal of evidence by deleting phone messages containing conversations regarding her true knowledge of the incident.
An earlier inquest heard that Mr Aicken, 24, known to his friends as ‘Panda’, died as the result of the injuries he sustained after his Yamaha motorbike was in collision with a BMW car in Tylers Road, Roydon, on Christmas Eve, 2014.
Following the crash, Williams went home and waited nearly 40 hours before police were contacted about her being the driver. But afterwards told officers she thought it had been an animal involved.
The court had heard that she had also deleted phone messages involving Miss Beach and waited four months before giving police the phone code so they could access them.
Family and friends of Mr Aicken packed the courtroom where Williams shook in the dock as she was sentenced.
The court heard, she had been diagnosed with depression four weeks before the accident and was taking anti-depressants.
Prosecutor Richard Kelly told the court: “This arises out of a two-vehicle accident which occurred around 4.10am on 24 December, 2014. The two vehicles were a Yamaha motor-cycle ridden by Mr Aicken and a black BMW driven by Lucy-Jane Williams.
“Mr Aicken had finished work in Hoddesdon and was on his way to Harlow, travelling along Tylers Road. Williams was travelling away from Harlow and was returning to her home address in Hatfield after spending the evening with her boyfriend in Waltham Abbey.
“Mr Aicken was negotiating a left hand bend and for reasons unknown, himself and his bike entered into the opposite carriageway and there was a collision between them. She continued on leaving him at the side of the road, unfortunately where he died.”
A colleague following behind saw the motorcycle and stopped, paramedic attended and 20 minutes later he was declared.