Cyclist who killed pedestrian sent to youth offenders' institution

A cyclist who knocked over and killed a woman in London, has been sentenced to 18 months in a young offenders' institution. Charlie Allison was cleared of manslaughter but found guilty of bodily harm by "wanton or furious driving".

Charlie Alliston was travelling on a fixed-wheel track bike that lacked front brakes when he collided with Kim Briggs in February 2016. He was 18 at the time of the collision.

Sentencing at the Old Bailey, Judge Wendy Joseph said: "I am satisfied in some part it was this so-called thrill that motivated you to ride without a front brake shouting and swearing at pedestrians to get out of the way. I have no doubt you are wrong in this. You were an accident waiting to happen. The victim could have been any pedestrian. It was in fact Mrs Kim Briggs."

Kim Briggs, aged 44, was crossing Old Street during her lunch break when she was hit by Alliston's bike. She suffered serious head injuries, including a fractured skull, and died a week later in hospital. 

Her widower, Matthew Briggs, spoke outside the court following sentencing. He called for the introduction of new laws, including causing death by dangerous cycling to close a “gap in the law” relating death or serious injury by dangerous cycling." “To have to rely on either manslaughter at one end, or a Victorian law that doesn't even mention causing death at the other end, tells us there is a gap,” he said. “The fact that what happened to Kim is rare is not a reason to be no remedy.”

Prosecutors took the step of bringing a manslaughter charge due to the unusually grave circumstances of the case. The offence of wanton and furious driving, under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, carries a maximum sentence of two years in jail.

The court heard Alliston, now aged 20, was depressed, had broken up with his girlfriend and lost his job. He denied both charges.