Cyclist heard ‘moaning’ underneath car following collision, murder trial hears

A headteacher was heard “moaning” trapped underneath a car after he was knocked off his bike, a murder trial jury has heard.

Simon Richardson, 35, is said to have driven at speed through give way markers at a junction in Warburton, Altrincham, and into the path of cyclist Michael Mullins, 56, on his way home from Stretford Grammar School in Manchester.

Mr Mullins was dragged along the surface of the road for more than a mile before he was discovered barely breathing on a grass verge in a quiet country lane in Lymm, Cheshire, a court was told.

He was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics at 6.50pm, some 40 minutes after the collision in Paddock Lane on the early evening of April 20, the court heard.

On Wednesday, Richardson’s cousin Gabrielle Debotte, 27, told Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court the defendant was aware he had struck a cyclist and they had fallen under his Volvo XC90 car.

Giving evidence from behind a screen, front seat passenger Ms Debotte said her cousin was driving “at speed” as they approached the junction of Dunham Road and Paddock Lane immediately before the collision.

She said: “I said ‘you need to slow down’. He smirked and said ‘I’m a professional driver’.

“As we approached the junction I noticed the bike coming towards us.

“I shouted ‘bike’ three times because I noticed that Simon was not stopping. I was trying to get him to stop and let the bike across.

“He didn’t slow down and crashed into the bike. From what I remember it was the front of the car that hit the bike.”

Ms Debotte said Richardson stopped his car “for a split second” and then drove on.

Prosecutor Phil Barnes KC said: “In that split second did either of you say anything to the other?”

The witness replied: “I said to him ‘you need to get out’. He didn’t say anything.”

Mr Barnes said: “Why did you say that?”

Ms Debotte said: “Because it was the right thing to do.”

She said Richardson then drove “erratically” and was “swerving the wheel”.

Mr Barnes said: “Do you know why?”

Ms Debotte said: “We could hear a noise coming from underneath the car. Moaning.”

Mr Barnes said: “Could you tell where that moaning was coming from?”

The witness replied: “Underneath the car, not sure which side.”

Mr Barnes said: “You said Simon Richardson heard the noise, how do you know he heard the noise?”

Ms Debotte said: “He told me. He said he is under the car.”

Mr Barnes said: “Did you say anything to him?”

She said: “I said ‘stop the car’. He didn’t say anything.”

Ms Debotte said she was unsure how soon after the collision she heard the moaning.

She said: “We were driving at such a speed I can’t say exactly how long it was. It was quite soon after we left but I can’t say for sure.”

Richardson later stopped his vehicle in Wet Gate Lane, Lymm, a distance of 2.2 kilometres from the collision, the court has heard.

The prosecution say Richardson “veered sharply and deliberately from side to side” in Wet Gate Lane before his car mounted a grass verge and drove over Mr Mullins at least once before he was finally dislodged.

Ms Debotte told the jury her cousin twice got out of the vehicle as she heard him “struggling” in vain to remove Mr Mullins from underneath the car.

Richardson returned to the car and again drove “erratically, like swerving”, she said, and then soon after she saw Mr Mullins for the first time before they left the scene.

Ms Debotte said: “From what I remember he was laid there. One arm moved slightly.”

Mr Barnes said: “Can I ask you to describe what state of mind you were in those moments, how did you feel?”

Ms Debotte said: “Shocked, scared. I had never seen anything like that in my life. I still have visions of it today… I was frozen.”

Asked why she did not call the police after the collision, she said: “I don’t know, I had not been in a situation like that before in my life.

“I didn’t know what I was doing. I was in shock.”

She told the court she heard Richardson “laughing and joking” with a friend at their family home hours after the collision.

Richardson, of no fixed address, denies murder and an alternative count of manslaughter.

He has also pleaded not guilty to an allegation of dangerous driving on April 21 in a police pursuit before he was arrested.

Footage played to jurors showed Richardson leap out of a transit van in Failsworth, Greater Manchester, and make off on foot from officers during the pursuit.