Parents of teenager killed in bus stop smash handed restraining order to stop them harassing motorist
The parents of a 15-year-old girl who was killed after being hit by a car have been given a restraining order to stop them “harassing” the driver involved in her death.
Colin Dawson, 47, and wife Angela, 50, had been due in court to face two counts of harassing Richard Brooke, 53, and his wife Claire Lomas Brooke.
The Dawsons had publicly campaigned for quantity surveyor Mr Brooke to be prosecuted over Katelyn's death in January 2018.
The teenager died after being struck by his BMW while she stood at a bus stop in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.
But Crown Prosecution Service officials ruled out a prosecution after hearing that the business consultant had fainted at the wheel and suffered from “insane automatism”.
The Dawsons had been accused of handing out a petition outside Mr Brooke's workplace.
A court heard the couple had also driven slowly past Mr Brooke's house and the shop owned by his wife, which prosecutors said amounted to "harassment".
Mr and Mrs Dawson of Huddersfield, appeared at Bradford Magistrates' Court on Tuesday where harassment charges against them were withdrawn – but they were instead handed a restraining order.
The heartbroken couple cannot contact Mr and Mrs Brooke or enter an exclusion zone around their house and work for two years.
They also cannot use social media to contact or share information about Mr and Mrs Brooke.
District Judge Richard Clews told the Dawsons that anybody who knew the circumstances surrounding their actions would find them "understandable to some extent".
He said: "I am confident that everything you did or have done is likely to be a way of expressing or trying to express your grief and a sense of injustice rather than any attempt to deliberately break the law.
"I am acutely aware the resolution of these proceedings is not going to bring to an end your grief, nothing will. I only hope that the passage of time will help."
In a statement issued after the court hearing, Mr and Mrs Dawson said: "We are pleased that common sense has prevailed and the harassment charges against us have been dropped.
"We can now focus on the most important matter which is the inquest into Katelyn’s death.
"We still have many unanswered questions and hopefully these can be resolved by the coroner."
Katelyn had been stood at a bus stop with several members of the public when the BMW left the carriageway and ploughed into them.
Katelyn was rushed to Leeds General Infirmary where she was pronounced dead at about 6.15pm on 10 January, 2018.
Two others – a 17-year-old girl and 47-year-old Christine Crawshaw – suffered serious injuries in the smash.
The CPS confirmed last year it was not pursuing a prosecution against the driver.
It said the defence of insane automatism – when a person suffers some malfunctioning of their body or mind due to an internal cause such as a medical episode – applied and he would not be convicted.
Parents of teenager killed in bus stop smash handed restraining order to stop them harassing motorist
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January 15, 2020
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