‘Vulnerable’ girl jailed ‘ought to by no means have been charged’
Prosecutors are facing serious questions after three judges quashed the manslaughter conviction of a disabled woman for waving a cyclist into the path of an oncoming car.
Auriol Grey, 50, spent a year in jail after being found guilty of unlawful manslaughter after retired midwife Celia Ward, 77, was killed when she was hit by a car.
Ms Grey could be heard telling Mrs Ward to ‘get off the f****** pavement’ in CCTV of the incident in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, in October 2020.
She denied manslaughter but was found guilty after a retrial and was jailed for three years in March 2023.
On Wednesday, three judges at the Court of Appeal in London overturned her conviction, ruling that the jury were not asked to decide ‘the fundamental question of whether a base offence was established’.
After the ruling, Ms Grey’s lawyers slammed the decision to ever charge the ‘vulnerable’ woman, who has cerebral palsy and partial blindness, in the first place.
They said: ‘Ms Grey simply should never have been charged.’
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
‘Misconceived prosecutions and wrongful convictions such as this cause untold pain to all those affected, including the family of the deceased, as well as the person wrongly accused,’ they added.
The legal team also said that neither Mrs Ward’s family or Ms Grey and hers ‘should ever have been put through this ordeal’.
‘Mrs Ward should never have been faced with the choice between cycling on the pavement or cycling on a busy and dangerous ring road,’ they said.
‘Had a clear and well-signed cycle path been in place, safely separating vulnerable pedestrians such as Ms Grey, this accident would never have occurred.’
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.
Adrian Darbishire KC, representing Ms Grey said: ‘Hostile gesticulation is not a crime, otherwise we would have 50,000 football fans each weekend being apprehended.’
After the ruling, Ms Grey’s family said: ‘Whilst we welcome the decision of the Court of Appeal our thoughts today are also with the Ward family and I am sure a day doesn’t go by when they don’t remember their tragic loss.
‘There has been unnecessary and prolonged suffering and vulnerable people like Auriol need better support from the justice system – we hope lessons will be learnt.
‘After a tough start she has strived over decades to build a normal life without seeking attention and we don’t underestimate the difficulties she will face rebuilding this.’
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.’
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.’
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, 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
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.’
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.
Grey left the scene of the collision before emergency services arrived and went to a local supermarket
Grey repeatedly told police she ‘couldn’t remember’ details of the incident which led to Ms Ward’s death
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, said after the hearing that her death had caused him ‘great suffering’, while their daughter, Gillian Hayter, said the ‘deliberate act of violence was incomprehensible’.
Auriol Grey, 49, gestured angrily towards 77-year-old Celia Ward and told her to ‘get off the f****** pavement’ as she rode her bike in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, in October 2020
Mother-of-two Carla Money, who was driving the VW that hit Mrs Ward, described how Grey’s ‘selfish actions’ had left her with post-traumatic stress disorder and led to the collapse of her marriage.
But Grey’s brother-in-law, Alisdair Luckmore, 57, said previously: ‘I can’t believe there was any intent whatsoever. It was a tragic accident.
‘Auriol reacted in the only way she knew how – to panic.’
The case also triggered a furious online debate, with one person commenting ‘Should be five years [in jail], while another said ‘So wrong. What a travesty of justice’.
In April following Grey’s release from prison, friends told of her ‘relief and enjoyment’ at being allowed home and ‘going out and about again’ following a long year behind bars.
Disabled Grey, 50, who is fighting to clear her name after winning the right to contest her conviction for causing the death of cyclist Celia Ward, 77, during a pavement row, knows her troubles are far from over.
She has to wait until a date to be fixed in May for her momentous hearing at the Appeal Court in London, which could see her vindicated and her conviction quashed.
Even so, speaking exclusively to MailOnline, one of her friends who visited Grey in jail said she was so ‘thrilled’ to be back that she treated a group of pals to breakfast at her nearby Wetherspoon, the Sandford House.
In images taken in April following her release Auriol Grey was seen out shopping with a friend
She was wearing a dark green fleece, navy trousers and glasses as she strolled through the centre of Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire
Grey’s close friend Roman Ramsey, 78, who picked her up from prison, said: ‘It’s in the middle of town and on the site of the old Post Office. She took some friends for breakfast and treated them.
‘She enjoys the occasional glass of wine but not at that time so they had cups of tea!’
He told how ‘prison food was alright’ but she missed cooking fresh food, particularly vegetables, explaining: ‘She likes roasting different vegetables and snacking on them and making soups. She didn’t get nice veg inside.
‘Auriol can look after herself and cook for herself but she does need a degree of care for certain things and is in the process of getting her carers back.
‘This can take time so now her friends are helping her with things like washing her hair. They are all very supportive.
‘She likes going out to the local cafes and shops and is out every day.’
Mr Ramsey revealed that whilst his close friend appears ‘physically OK’ he has seen a change in her during her 12 months being incarcerated.
He said: ‘I sense she can be a bit uptight and get stressed. You never know what is going on in her mind because she bottles it all up.
‘She is just waiting for her appeal and willing it to all be over but it is always in the back of her mind.
‘She was very upset at being jailed in the first place. Her friends, family and neighbours all thought it was totally ridiculous she had been convicted of manslaughter and given a custodial sentence.
‘She did too and has always maintained she is not a killer.’
When she was first freed, polite and well spoken Grey confirmed to MailOnline she was back home but declined to say how she was feeling or answer any questions, simply saying: ‘No comment.’
She lives alone in an adapted flat in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, where friends and neighbours rally around to help and support her.
The popular and much-loved resident lives at the gated complex owned and maintained by the Papworth Trust and needs carers to help with some daily activities.
Yet since leaving HMP Peterborough, she is still waiting for a team of care workers to resume their home visits, so her friends are helping her out in the meantime.
Grey has a cleft foot and walks with a supportive splint on her right leg. She is also partially blind and suffers with cerebral palsy that affects her mobility and coordination.
She likes to keep fit and active, going for daily walks and shopping trips as well as visits to the local library, cafes and pubs.
In a first picture of Grey since her release, taken by MailOnline this week, she appeared content as she strolled along a street, linking arms with a female neighbour.
An onlooker said: ‘It was so nice to see Auriol out and about again. She looks happy and clearly has a lot supportive people around her.
‘People in the town who know her are wishing her good luck for her appeal. Many here believe she should never have been locked up.’
Following the ruling, Auriol Grey’s family said in a statement: ‘Whilst we welcome the decision of the Court of Appeal our thoughts today are also with the Ward family and I am a sure a day doesn’t go by when they don’t remember their tragic loss.
‘We are very relieved that Auriol’s prison ordeal is over and we would like to thank for the staff and inmates of HMP Peterborough for the kindness and consideration they have shown over the last year.
‘There has been unnecessary and prolonged suffering and vulnerable people like Auriol need better support from the justice system – we hope lessons will be learnt.
‘That said, we have been heartened and gratified by the way the legal community has rallied around her and, with no thought to personal gain, worked hard to right these wrongs.
‘Auriol’s challenges are not over today.
‘After a tough start she has strived over decades to build a normal life without seeking attention and we don’t underestimate the difficulties she will face rebuilding this.
‘We would ask the people of Huntingdon and the press to please respect her privacy and give her space during this time.’
