Charlie Alliston, pictured arriving at the Old Bailey to be sentenced today
A self-styled ‘anti-social’ cyclist who knocked down and killed a mother-of-two while riding an illegal bike has been jailed for
Charlie Alliston was travelling at 18mph on an Olympic-style fixed-wheel track bike with no front brakes before he crashed into 44-year-old Kim Briggs as she crossed the road on her lunchbreak.
Former McDonald’s worker, courier and scaffolder Alliston smashed into the HR executive with his illegal ‘fixie’ bike in Old Street, London in February last year.
Mrs Briggs died a week later in hospital.
While medics battled to save his victim’s life, Alliston, then 18, wrote on a cyclist’s forum: ‘I warned for a second time to pretty much get the f*** outta my way, which she didn’t.’
He later wrote: ‘I refuse to accept any responsibility in this whatsoever… It’s not my fault people think they are invincible or just have zero respect for cyclists.
‘What makes it worse is that, even when people were helping her, her phone was going off continuously with texts showing she was on it at the time.
‘If you value your mobile phone more than your life maybe this is the type of wake up call you need.’
Some five months after the tragedy, Alliston got a ghoulish skull tattoo behind his ear – which was only revealed as jurors began their deliberations.
Alliston smashed into HR executive Kim Birggs (pictured) with his illegal ‘fixie’ bike in Old Street, London in February last year. Mrs Briggs died a week later in hospital
Charlie Alliston was travelling at 18mph on an Olympic-style fixed-wheel track bike with no front brakes before he crashed into the mother-of-two
Judge Wendy Joseph QC said she had ‘not seen one iota of remorse from Mr Alliston at all, at any stage’
In a scathing remark in court appearance last month, Judge Wendy Joseph QC said she was considering a prison sentence, adding: ‘I have not seen one iota of remorse from Mr Alliston at all, at any stage.’
Prosecutors took the unprecedented step of bringing a manslaughter charge due to the unusually grave circumstances of the case.
Jurors took more than 12 hours to clear Alliston of manslaughter but convict him of a lesser offence of causing bodily harm by wanton and furious driving.
The offence, under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act, carries a maximum sentence of two years in jail.
Alliston later added on the cycling forum: ‘We collided pretty hard, our heads hit together, hers went into the floor and ricocheted into mine.
‘It is a pretty serious incident so I won’t bother saying, ‘oh she deserved it, it’s her fault’.
‘Yes it is her fault but no, she did not deserve it.
‘Hopefully, it is a lesson learned on her behalf, it shouldn’t have happened like it did but what more can I say.’
He complained: ‘It’s not my fault people either think they are invincible or have zero respect for cyclists.’
Mrs Briggs’ widower Matthew, from Lewisham, south London, has called for a ‘radical change’ in cycling culture and the introduction of new laws, including causing death by dangerous cycling.
Mr Briggs also recounted to the court the heart-wrenching moment he told his children their mother had died.
He has said: ‘I am now determined to do what I can to prevent others from going through the heartache we have had to bear following Kim’s needless death.
‘The current law is outdated and has not kept pace with the huge increase in the number of people cycling and the associated increased risk of collisions, nor the attitude of some cyclists.
‘We need to change the way the law deals with this.
‘I am calling for an introduction of laws of causing death or serious injury by dangerous or careless cycling, thereby bringing cycling laws into line with the Road Traffic Act.’
Alliston, now 20, from Bermondsey, south London,