'Childlike' disabled woman, 50, who angrily told cyclist, 77, to 'get off the ... trends now
A disabled woman who spent a year in jail after being convicted of causing a cyclist to fall into the path of an oncoming car has had her manslaughter conviction overturned.
Auriol Grey, 50, was seen on CCTV shouting at retired midwife Celia Ward to 'get off the f****** pavement' in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, causing her to fall into the road in October 2020.
Mrs Ward, a 77-year-old grandmother from Wyton, died after she was struck by the VW Passat.
Ms Grey, who has cerebral palsy and partial blindness, denied manslaughter but was found guilty after a retrial and was jailed for three years in March 2023.
But on Wednesday, three judges at the Court of Appeal in London overturned her conviction.
Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Mrs Justice Yip and Mrs Justice Farbey, said: 'In our judgment, the prosecution case was insufficient event to be left to the jury.'
She continued: 'In all the circumstances, we have no hesitation in concluding that the appellant's conviction for manslaughter is unsafe.'
Auriol Grey (centre), who shouted and waved at a cyclist following which she fell into the path of an oncoming car, has had her manslaughter conviction overturned
Grey, was accompanied to court today by her brother-in-law brother-in-law Alisdair Luxmoore (pictured together)
Grey shouted 'Get off the f****** pavement' as a retired midwife approached her on the pavement
CCTV footage showed Ms Ward falling into the road moments before she was struck by a car
CCTV footage showed Celia Ward (pictured with her husband David) wobble into the road in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, where she was struck by a VW Passat
Ms Grey's legal team argued at the Court of Appeal in London that she had been charged with unlawful act manslaughter, which requires an illegal action to take place that caused death.
Adrian Darbishire KC said: 'The trial seems to have proceeded on the basis that some kind of unlawfulness, undefined and unspecified, was sufficient to find this offence of homicide.'
There was 'entirely no base offence identified in this process', he added, saying aspects of common law were 'wholly absent' from the advice given to the jury to help them decide whether or not the defendant was guilty.
Mr Darbishire told the court: 'The entire legal process, and the preparation of such, proceeded on a false legal footing.'
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The Appeal Court judges agreed, with Dame Victoria saying the jury hadn't been asked to decide 'the fundamental question of whether a base offence was established'.
She continued: 'The appellant's actions that day contributed to Mrs Ward's untimely death. Had Mrs Ward not died, we regard it as inconceivable that the appellant would have been charged with assault.'
Grey's actions during the incident in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, in October 2020 were described in the court as a 'hostile gesticulation' towards grandmother Mrs Ward.
Mr Darbishire said: 'Hostile gesticulation is not a crime, otherwise we would have 50,000 football fans each weekend being apprehended.'
His client has has reduced vision and 'significant physical impairment' on her right-hand side, he added.
This meant the trial jury at Peterborough Crown Court 'needed less focus on hostility on her part' and more attention to 'the reasonableness of not standing aside where [it] would involve moving to her right-hand side, her unfavoured side, to let the cyclist past'.
The barrister added the jury could have concluded her actions were unnecessary but said: 'That certainly does not make her guilty of the offence of manslaughter.
'The evidence was clearly insufficient for the charge alleged.'
Simon Spence KC, for the Crown Prosecution Service, who are opposing the appeal, accepted that 'common assault as the base offence was not identified by name'.
Asked by the judges what actions could be regarded as common assault if identified, he replied: 'The walking towards the cyclist, the gesticulation with her left arm towards the road, and the words 'Get off the f****** pavement'.
'Those words are capable of turning a gesture, and nothing more, into an unlawful act.'
The behaviour could have caused Mrs Ward, of Wyton, Cambridgeshire, to fear immediate unlawful force, leading her to veer away from Grey and into the road.
He added: 'We say that is capable in law of amounting to an act of unlawful manslaughter.'
Grey, 50, who has cerebral palsy and is partially blind, denied manslaughter but was previously found guilty
She was jailed last year and spent one year inside HMP Peterborough
An earlier Court of Appeal bid to reduce Grey's sentence - on the grounds that an autism diagnosis secured after her trial might have affected the outcome of her case - was rejected last May.
Judges who presided over the hearing concluded the sentence was 'not arguably manifestly excessive'.
The retrial last year heard that 'childlike' Grey, who was living in supported accommodation for the disabled in Huntingdon at the time of the incident, acted 'territorially' and had shown no remorse after Mrs Ward's death.
The defendant argued her victim was travelling 'fast' towards her and she had been 'anxious' about being hit.
Judge Sean Enright concluded the defendant had given a 'dishonest account' in a police interview and, while acknowledging her disabilities, added: 'It does not reduce your understanding of right or wrong.'
The 8ft-wide pavement Mrs Ward was cycling on was a 'shared cycleway', the judge said, and Grey should not have been 'taken by surprise' when a bike approached her.
Mrs Ward's husband of 53 years, retired RAF pilot David,
