A passenger in a car that struck headteacher Michael Mullins has told a court she heard 'moaning' coming from underneath the vehicle as her cousin drove on.
Simon Richardson, 35, is accused of murdering Mr Mullins after running him over as he cycled home from work on April 20 this year. Prosecutors allege Richardson did not stop and 'put his foot down' while Mr Mullins was trapped under the car. The 56-year-old headteacher was dragged along the road for 1.3 miles (2.2km) before dying on a grass verge on Wet Gate Lane in Lymm.
Collision on Dunham Road
Jurors at Minshull Street Crown Court previously heard that Richardson hit Mr Mullins in his Volvo in Altrincham. The headteacher was cycling home to Northwich after work when he was struck at the junction of Dunham Road and Warburton Lane.
Prosecutors allege Richardson later stopped, got out of the car and made 'concerted physical efforts' to pull Mr Mullins from underneath the vehicle. He then got back behind the wheel and turned sharply in a bid to 'remove' Mr Mullins before carrying on driving, veering 'sharply and deliberately' and mounting a grass verge where Mr Mullins was later found.
Passenger's account
Giving evidence, Gabrielle Debotte, Richardson's cousin, said she was in the passenger seat at the time as the defendant was giving her a lift to pick up a weight loss job. They had briefly stopped at the Bull's Head pub in Altrincham, where she went to the toilet, before getting back in the Volvo and driving down Dunham Road.
Speaking of his driving, she said: "He was driving at a speed that was unusual. Not at the point I thought he needed to slow down but it was faster than usual. I did say he needed to slow down and he smirked and said 'I'm a professional driver'."
Before the collision, she said: "We were coming straight down the road. We were going at quite a speed. As we approached the junction I noticed the bike coming towards us. It was on the driver's right."
Shouted 'bike' three times
Asked by Phil Barnes KC, prosecuting, whether there was any reason she noticed the bike, she said: "I always look left and right in a car, I looked and noticed the bike coming." Asked what she did or said, she said: "I shouted 'bike' three times. I noticed Simon wasn't stopping." She said she was aware he was required to give way to traffic.
"He didn't slow down and he crashed into the bike. From what I remember it was the front of the car that hit the bike," she said. Ms Debotte said she didn't see what happened to the bike. "After he hit him from what I can remember he went under the car," she said. "From what I can remember when the bike approached the car, the car smacked into the bike directly. At that time I didn't fully see all the way down the car."
She said in the moments after the collision she was aware the cyclist had been 'drawn under the car'. Asked how she was aware of that, she said: "He wasn't in the road, I couldn't see him."
Noise under the car
After the collision, she said Richardson stopped the car for a 'split second' then drove off. Asked whether either of them got out, she said: "No." Asked whether either of them said anything, she said: "I said we need to get out but he didn't say anything." Asked why she said that, she told the court: "Because it was the right thing to do."
She told jurors Richardson's driving after the collision was 'erratic'. "He was swerving the wheel. You could hear a noise underneath the car. As he heard that noise he began swerving the wheel," she said. Describing the noise she heard underneath the car, she said: "Moaning." Asked how she knew he heard the noise, she said: "He told me." Asked what he said, she said: "He's under the car."
Richardson, of no fixed address but formerly of Epsom Avenue, Sale, denies murder, an alternate offence of manslaughter, and dangerous driving.
