



A cyclist jailed for knocking over and killing a woman as he sped through east London on a bike with no front brakes was told he was “an accident waiting to happen” as he received an 18-month sentence.



Charlie Alliston, 20, who collided with Kim Briggs as she crossed Old Street, was told by judge Wendy Joseph QC at the Old Bailey that the victim “could have been any pedestrian” and that he had shown no remorse for her death.

“You have throughout sought to put your blame on her,” the judge said. “Perhaps one of the most shocking things about this case is that you could not and apparently cannot still see any fault in your cycling or judgment.

“You chose to ride at a speed and on a bike which you could not stop, your attitude being that everyone else would just have to get out of your way,” Joseph added. “Of course you did not set out to cause the harm you did – but the jury have found that you were aware of the risks and went on to take them.”



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Alliston was travelling at 18mph on his secondhand fixed-gear bike on 12 February 2016 when he collided with Kim Briggs, 44, as she stepped out into Old Street.

Briggs, a mother of two, who was on her lunch break, suffered “catastrophic” head injuries and died in hospital a week later.



Alliston was cleared of manslaughter but found guilty of causing bodily harm by “wanton and furious driving”, a crime under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, which carries a maximum sentence of two years in jail.

During the trial, jurors heard that Alliston, a fan of “dangerous” bike racing videos, had been riding a black Planet X carbon-frame track bike, a model more commonly seen ridden by top cyclists such as Sir Chris Hoy and Laura Trott at the Olympic velodrome. Alliston had not fitted the bicycle with a front brake, as is required to make them legal to ride on the road.

The judge said Alliston’s “whole manner of driving” caused the accident. “If your bicycle had a front-wheel brake you could have stopped, but on this illegal bike, you could not. On your own evidence by this stage you weren’t even trying to slow or stop. You expected her to get out of your way.”

In mitigation, Mark Wyeth QC told the court that an apparent lack of remorse shown by Alliston was a “coping strategy” derived from the loss of his father, who died of a heart attack in the bathroom of the family home when Alliston was 16.



“It’s [pre-sentence report author] Ruth Smith’s opinion, having spent time with the defendant and presenting this report to the court, that here we have a young man who presents with emotional flatness,” Wyeth said.



Wyeth also told the court that, following the death of Briggs, Alliston spent nine days in the Maudsley psychiatric hospital, south London, having been taken there by police who had found him out alone with a rope, apparently in preparation for a suicide attempt. Wyeth said this episode, and Alliston’s repeated calls to the hospital after the collision to check on Briggs’s condition, were evidence of the defendant’s remorse.



But Joseph, after reading the report for herself in court, said she saw no evidence that Alliston had shown remorse over the death of Briggs, “only self-interested fear as to the difficulties it is causing for you”.

While accepting that he had suffered mental ill health, including a diagnosis of depression, she noted the documented causes were “stress at the prospect of a trial, fear of being sent to prison, and upset at your girlfriend breaking off the relationship”, rather than regret over his actions.



Alliston, from Bermondsey, south London, had denied both charges against him. He raised his eyebrows as Joseph passed sentence and showed no emotion as he was led away to begin his sentence in a young offender institution.

Briggs’ widower, Matthew, from Lewisham, south London, who was in court to see Alliston jailed, has called for a “radical change” in cycling culture and the introduction of new laws, including the offence of causing death by dangerous cycling.

In a vicim impact statement, Matthew Briggs had earlier told the court of the moment he had to tell his children that their mother was dying. “My children had to say goodbye to their mother as she lay in the intensive care unit,” he said. “Our world fell apart. I lost my wife and my best friend.”

In a statement outside court, Briggs said: “This case has clearly and evidently demonstrated there is a gap in the law when it comes to dealing with 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. The fact that what happened to Kim is rare is not a reason to have no remedy.”

Speaking outside the court, Alliston’s mother, Karan, said her son had been sentenced “appropriately” and thanked the judge for handling the case fairly.



“On behalf of my son Charlie and all his family we would like to express our sincere condolences to the Briggs family for their loss,” she said. “We know that they bear the heaviest loss of all in this case.”