Charlie Alliston: Police fail to probe perjury claim

Charlie Alliston (pictured) was sentenced to 18 months in a young offender institution last year following the death of London pedestrian Kim Briggs

Police have failed to complete an investigation into claims a killer cyclist committed perjury more than six months after his conviction.

Charlie Alliston was sentenced to 18 months in a young offender institution last year following the death of London pedestrian Kim Briggs.

But during his trial the judge was informed that Alliston may have committed perjury after claiming under oath that he was an experienced bike courier.

The 20-year-old was convicted in August of causing bodily harm through ‘wanton and furious driving’ but acquitted of manslaughter in relation to the death of Mrs Briggs.

The 44-year-old mother-of-two died from severe head injuries sustained when the pair collided on Central London’s Old Street in February 2016.

The Daily Mail has learned that Alliston may be released in April – meaning he could be back on the streets before the police have completed their investigation.

During his trial Alliston told an Old Bailey jury that he had spent eight months working as a courier in London and was used to making ‘up to 20 deliveries’ a day.

Alliston – whose fixed wheel bike was illegal on the road because it had no front brake – is thought to have lied about his employment history in a bid to convince the jury he was an experienced cyclist on London’s busy roads.

Alliston claimed while giving evidence at the Old Bailey that he had worked for three different firms.

However, the Daily Mail took just one afternoon during a break in the trial proceedings to contact the three courier firms for which Alliston claimed to have worked.

The first firm called ‘Go Between Couriers’ said he had worked for them for just one day and then never returned.

The second called ‘A-Z Couriers’ told how he had spent just a week working for them before he too suddenly left their employment. 

The third firm called ‘Pink Express’ had ceased trading in 2014 making it impossible for Alliston to claim he worked for them when he collided with Mrs Briggs in February 2016.

Mother-of-two Kim Briggs, 44, died from severe head injuries sustained when the pair collided on Central London¿s Old Street in February 2016

HR executive Mrs Briggs died in hospital a week after the collision

Mother-of-two Kim Briggs, 44, died from severe head injuries sustained when the pair collided on Central London’s Old Street in February 2016

The officer in charge of the Alliston enquiry – DC Darren Case – later requested and were given documents from Companies House accessed by the Daily Mail which revealed Pink Express had been dissolved in November 2014.

At the end of Alliston’s trial Judge Wendy Joseph said: ‘I have now been advised that Mr Alliston was not telling the truth about his courier experience.’

She then asked police and DC Case to investigate whether Alliston had lied on oath as she added: ‘During the latter months of 2015 you dropped out of school and told the court you worked as a bicycle courier – cycling extensively on the London roads.

‘The truthfulness of your evidence on this point has been questioned.’

In a further twist to the perjury allegation the Daily Mail has been told that the officer tasked with investigating Alliston has a chequered past.

Prince Harry pictured with Kim Briggs's children Emily, 11, and Isaac, 13, and her husband Matthew, at Twickenham Stadium last year

Prince Harry pictured with Kim Briggs’s children Emily, 11, and Isaac, 13, and her husband Matthew, at Twickenham Stadium last year

Metropolitan Police sources have revealed that Detective Constable Case was forced to resign by the Metropolitan in 2007 after a police watchdog found serious flaws in the way he investigated a murder inquiry.

At the time Mr Case and his colleague Det Constable Adam Suett were both involved in the investigation of the murder of 22-year-old Peter Woodhams who was shot three times outside his home in Canning Town, East London.

His family gave police the name of Bradley Tucker who was behind a previous knife attack against Mr Woodhams and who was later convicted of his murder but police failed to investigate properly.

The officers appeared at a two day misconduct hearing where they were found to have been guilty of a gross neglect of duty.

Both men were subsequently reinstated after a review by a senior Metropolitan Assistant Commissioner in 2008 who ruled their sacking was too severe a punishment.

Alliston's fixed wheel bike (pictured) was illegal on the road because it had no front brake

Alliston’s fixed wheel bike (pictured) was illegal on the road because it had no front brake

Gunman Tucker, aged 18, was jailed for a minimum of 25 years in May 2007 for the murder of Mr Woodhams which took place in August 2006.

Last week DC Case refused to reply to a Daily Mail request to comment on his role in investigating the Woodhams murder.

In England & Wales the offence of perjury, created under the Perjury Act 1911, carries a maximum penalty of seven years’ imprisonment or a fine, or both.

A Metropolitan police spokesman claimed that the two officers at the centre of the misconduct hearing were not named at the time and would not be named ten years later and the matter had concluded, adding: ‘Further Officers are investigating an allegation of perjury against a 20 year old man in connection with the death of a pedestrian in February 2016.

‘This is ongoing and as such we are not offering a running commentary.’ 



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