A motorcyclist followed a mile-long trail of blood to find Stretford Grammar School headteacher Michael Mullins dying on the side of the road, a murder trial was told. Andrew Besant-Roberts noticed the 'strange' trail after finding a 'damaged and bent' bicycle in the road surrounded by confused drivers who were looking for the rider.
Besant-Roberts rode on his Kawasaki motorbike until he came across critically-injured Mr Mullins, 56, lying on a grass verge, a jury was told. Simon Richardson, 35, is standing trial for murder after being accused of knowingly dragging Mr Mullins under his Volvo XC90 for more than a mile after hitting him as he cycled home.
Crash and alleged dragging
A jury at Minshull Street Crown Court had previously heard Mr Mullins was making his way home to Northwich, Cheshire, after work when he was struck at the junction of Dunham Road and Warburton Lane on April 20. He was dragged under the wheels of the car for 1.3 miles - 2.2km - before dying at the roadside on Wet Gate Lane in Lymm, jurors heard.
The prosecution say at one point Mr Richardson stopped, got out of the car and made 'concerted physical efforts' to try and pull Mr Mullins from underneath the vehicle. He then got back behind the wheel and turned sharply in a bid to 'remove' Mr Mullins, the court heard. Mr Richardson, the trial heard, then carried on driving, veering 'sharply and deliberately' and mounting a grass verge.
Mr Richardson, prosecutors allege, knew Mr Mullins was beneath his car 'trapped and injured, but alive' and that he knew his actions would either kill him or cause him the 'gravest of injuries', yet continued to drive.
Witness accounts
Today (Tuesday) the trial heard how Mr Besant-Roberts came to find Mr Mullins. “It looked suspicious,” he said of the blood trail, in a statement read out in court. “It suddenly occurred to me that it was blood. As it went over a white line I could see it was red.”
Mr Besant-Jones followed the trail until he saw a badly-injured and unconscious Mr Mullins lying on a grass verge at the side of the road. He called 999 and performed CPR until paramedics arrived. "His breathing became worse," he said. "There were long pauses then it stopped."
Earlier, a motorist parked at the Green Dragon pub in Mill Lane said she noticed something underneath a vehicle travelling at speed. In a witness statement, Katie Woodward said: “My first thought was that it was a body but I thought this was ridiculous and surely a body can’t be under the car. I convinced myself it must have been an animal. As the vehicle drove along the road I saw it was leaving a trail coming from the passenger side.”
She too decided to follow the 'thick, dark trail', the court was told, which stopped where Mr Mullins laid as he was being tended to by Mr Besant-Roberts.
Other witnesses
The trial also heard from witnesses who saw the Volvo in the moments before, during and after the crash. Terry Snowdon said his wife was driving towards Partington at the time of the crash, "I said to my wife 'oh s**t, he's hit him'," he said. "There was a short sharp thug - metal on metal. The cyclist left the ground momentarily, no more than 3 to 4ft, before hitting the ground."
Kirsten Biggs, who was driving her grey BMW towards the junction of Dunham Road and Warburton Lane, said she saw the Volvo travelling 'extremely fast'. "It was absolutely tanking it... in excess of the speed limit, it kept edging out into the opposite lane in an attempt to overtake the vehicle in front," she said in a statement. "I was four or five car lengths away It was bobbing and weaving in and out, and not travelling in straight lane."
Dog walker Peter Connell said he saw the Volvo on Mill Lane. It caught his attention because it was making an ‘unusual sound, like something flapping around, like cardboard or plastic sheeting’, he said in a statement. He said he looked at the Volvo as it passed and could see an object underneath that was ‘all different colours, looking like clothing’.
Off-duty Police Constable Claire Bailey said she was passing the scene of the crash at 6.25pm and used her motorbike to block the road. "I could see a pedal cycle in the middle of the road," she said. "I could see a mobile phone. There were two tyre marks on the road. Further down the road I could see a water bottle. I couldn’t see a vehicle." Pc Bailey said she then called 999 'to inform them the cyclist was potentially under the vehicle as he wasn’t at the scene'.
Mr Richardson, of no fixed address, but formerly of Epsom Avenue in Sale, denies murder, an alternate offence of manslaughter and dangerous driving. Proceeding.
