Police officer guilty of killing woman in crash

A police officer who crashed and killed a woman while responding to an emergency call regarding a choking baby has been found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving.

Mark Roberts, 57, went "speeding" through a red light and hit a motorbike near the Metrocentre in Gateshead in July 2022, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The bike's pillion passenger, Muriel Pinkney, 74, died days later in hospital while her 77-year-old husband Ronald Pinkney, who was riding the bike, was seriously injured.

Roberts, from Darlington, denied the charges but had admitted causing death and serious injury by careless driving, claiming it was a "tragic accident".

At the end of a three-day trial, jurors took 56 minutes to reach unanimous guilty verdicts on the dangerous driving charges.

Roberts, who the court heard is suspended from his role at Northumbria Police, was granted bail and is due to be sentenced on 7 April.

The trial had heard the couple, who were on a Royal Enfield Himalayan motorbike exited the A1 southbound and was turning on to Dunston Road at about 15:00 BST on 8 July 2022.

Roberts drove the Peugeot 308 police car through a red light at 43mph and struck it.

The officer, who had his lights and siren on, was responding to a call at the request of the ambulance service to get to a five-week-old baby who needed CPR, the court heard.

Prosecutor John Harrison KC said police drivers were well trained and were told no emergency or "noble cause" justified having an accident to get there.

The prosecutor said Roberts "went speeding across a junction expecting everyone else to stop because he had his siren and lights flashing", but showed a "wholesale disregard" for other drivers.

Ronald Pinkney did nothing wrong and had the right of way with the green traffic light, the prosecutor added, with the court hearing the rider did not see the police car and Roberts should have anticipated other motorists not realising he was there.

Luke Ponte, for Roberts, said the police officer accepted full responsibility for the crash which was caused by his "admirable and urgent desire to respond to a very real emergency".

All sides said Roberts had not intended to harm anyone, with the court told there were "no winners or losers" in the "desperately sad" case.

Roberts declined to give evidence at the trial, but in a statement made to investigators he said it was a "tragic accident" for which he offered "sincere condolences" to the Pinkney family.

The court heard police drivers responding to emergencies were exempt from certain restrictions, such as speed limits and stopping at red lights, but they were still expected to meet the same standard of motoring as everyone else.

For the jurors to be sure the driving was dangerous, rather than careless, they would have to have found Roberts fell "far below what would be expected of a competent and careful driver", Judge Francis Laird KC said.

Speaking after the verdicts, Andy Hill, Assistant Chief Constable of Northumbria Police, said Roberts' "standard of driving fell short of what it is expected" which had "led to the most devastating of outcomes".

Disciplinary proceedings would be taken against him, Hill said.

Roberts has also been given an interim driving ban by the court.

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