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A 'childlike' disabled woman who spent a year in jail after she was convicted of causing an elderly cyclist to fall into the path of a car when she shouted at her has had her manslaughter conviction overturned today.
In 2020, CCTV footage caught Auriol Grey shouting at retired midwife Celia Ward, 77, to ‘Get off the f****** pavement’, following which she veered into the road where she died when she was hit by a VW Passat.
Grey, 50, who has cerebral palsy and is partially blind, was accompanied to the Court of Appeal today by her brother-in-law Alisdair Luxmoore, 57, the founder and CEO of a luxury Greek sailing company.
Throughout the original proceedings she denied manslaughter but was found guilty following a retrial and jailed for three years in March last year.
The case was brought by her legal team to the Court of Appeal in London today where they argued she had been charged with unlawful act manslaughter, which requires an illegal action to take place that caused death.
Grey’s lawyers told judges that no such ‘base offence’ was identified at the trial.
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
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.’
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.
Mr Darbishire said: ‘Hostile gesticulation is not a crime, otherwise we would have 50,000 football fans each weekend being apprehended.’
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.’
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
But Grey’s brother-in-law, Alisdair Luckmore 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.’
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.
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’.
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
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.'
