Help required: Witness Call (A different one) March, Oxford circus

[hulver]

Friend of a Friend has asked that this be passed on. Frankly the whole situation seems quite bizarre to me.

On Tuesday March 9th at around 4-5pm, I was cycling west along Oxford Street, London, near Dean Street, when a taxi suddenly swerved across the front of me to pick up a fare and we collided. Following a brief verbal exchange, the taxi driver grabbed the scarf around my neck and strangled me until I was unconscious.

The taxi driver's defence is that I attacked him. A passenger in the car behind saw a scuffle and believes he may have seen a singular punch thrown, although crucially states he didn't see a punch connect (there certainly was a scuffle, I was having the life strangled out of me at the time) and on that basis, regardless of damning photographic evidence that shows vicious swollen bruising around my neck plus a police doctor's report that indicates the same, because I have no witness or CCTV evidence to corroborate my story, the CPS has taken the taxi driver's version of events and charged me with assault.

HELP REQUIRED

[clarion]

Glad I didn't meet that nutter (or maybe I did).

Hope this gets resolved.  It's a ridiculous situation.  Throttling is not a valid defence against a punch that may or may not have been thrown.

[andygates]

Oxford Street and there's no CCTV?  There is CCTV.  Ask the shops.

[hulver]

I'm wondering if there's a lot more to this than meets the eye.

If there are no witnesses, and evidence of severe bruising / throttling, why would the CPS take the taxi drivers word over his?

It's very strange.

[Julian]

^ Presumably because the passenger corroborated the taxi driver's version of events.

[hatler]

Or the driver is an ex-copper ? ?

[andygates]

^ Presumably because the passenger corroborated the taxi driver's version of events.

That's quite closely-coupled, and presumably has to be considered pretty low-quality corroboration, no?

[Jaded]

Except he is Not A Cyclist, therefore probably counts more.

[clarion]

Masons?

[LiamFitz]

Anyone know the outcome?

[hulver]

Anyone know the outcome?

The incident happened in March, but the call for witnesses is fresh today.

[spindrift]

Cyclist charged with assault after taxi crash | News

Rum old story.

[Zoidburg]

We are only getting one side of the story.

Never assume that someone is not being an ejit just because they cycle.

It does seem odd that he was charged on just the evidence of one witness, but then again we may not have been told the entire truth about this story.

The guy in question works in the media so it's not a stretch to imagine him trying to use the media to wriggle out of a criminal charge.

[Ham]

I read it in road.cc yesterday http://road.cc/content/news/18146-london-cyclists-charged-assault-urgent-witness-appeal.  The story as reported in detail sounds reasonably balanced, but you were either there or not. However, given that the appeal is for any genuine witness, my sympathies tend to the cyclist here. I too am curious to know what evidence the police are using to base the prosecution on, but having seen some bizarre police interpretation of witness evidence at first hand, it proves nothing.

[iakobski]

This was covered in today's Standard. According to that he was due first court appearance today.

[LiamFitz]

Sadly to anyone with experience of London Cabbie vs bike incidents, this story has the ring of truth.

I have been deliberately driven at, pushed out of the way, carved up and threatened with violence for daring to use the advance stop line at some traffic lights.

I'm not saying all cabbies are nutters (nor are all cyclists saints..) but there are enough odd ones around to make me inclined to believe this tale.

Mind you, if I spent all day in London traffic I'm not sure I wouldn't be moved to some strange behaviours...

Liam