Frail pensioner, 89, who caused motorcyclist’s death while doing a U-turn is spared jail after plea of leniency from biker’s heartbroken widow
- David Fudge, 66, was killed after he was hit by a car in Bedfordshire in 2018
- A pensioner, William Curtis, 89, caused his death by dangerous driving
- Mr Fudge’s widow, Claire Montgomery, asked for leniency for Mr Curtis
- The judge said the request ‘speaks volumes about her decency and compassion’
A pensioner who caused the death of a motorcyclist while making a U-turn in his car has been spared jail after a request for leniency from the biker’s widow.
William Curtis, 89, said ‘I don’t want to drive’, and appeared tearful as he sat in a wheelchair and used a hearing loop to listen to proceedings at Cambridge Crown Court.
The defendant was found guilty at an earlier trial at the same court of causing the death of 66-year-old David Fudge by careless driving on the A4146 near Billington, Bedfordshire, on November 18 2018.
When prosecutor Simon Wilshire said that father-of-two Mr Fudge’s widow, Claire Montgomery, ‘does not seek Mr Curtis to go to prison’, the defendant dabbed his eyes with his hand.
Judge Jonathan Seely said the indication by Mrs Montgomery ‘speaks volumes about the decency, compassion and understanding of Mrs Montgomery and is an extraordinary tribute to her’.
Claire Montgomery (left), the widow of motorcyclist David Fudge (right), asked for leniency for the elderly driver who was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving
William Curtis (pictured), 89, killed David Fudge when he made a U-turn and crashed into his motorcycle in November 2018
He told Curtis that Mr Fudge ‘has been taken from those who love him because of your driving, and the sense of utter loss and grief on the part of those who love him is almost physically palpable’.
The judge said he had seen a letter from the defendant in which he ‘expressed heartfelt sorrow and remorse’ for what happened, adding he is satisfied that he is ‘genuinely remorseful’.
He sentenced Curtis to 26 weeks in prison, suspended for two years. Mrs Montgomery said, in a victim impact statement read to the court by their son, Luke Fudge: ‘Dave was the innocent victim of this avoidable tragedy.
‘He merely went for a Sunday ride out with his friends but never came home.’
Mrs Montgomery said Mr Fudge was ‘loved by all’, describing him as a ‘devoted husband’ who was also a ‘typical aerospace engineer’ and a governor at Luton Sixth Form College.
She said her husband was considered an ‘extremely experienced, confident and safe motorbike rider’.
Mr Fudge (pictured) had enjoyed riding motorbikes for 50 years and had never reported being in an accident before
Mrs Montgomery said Mr Fudge ‘would never get to see his baby twin granddaughters, born last year’, and that the ‘retirement he worked long and hard for was cut brutally short’.
The widow added: ‘every morning I wake up with the image of my husband somersaulting over Mr Fudge’s car’.
Ian Bridge, mitigating, said the crash ‘haunts’ the defendant, of Irchester, Northamptonshire, though he ‘has no proper memory of it’.
‘I should say once again for the record how devastated he is by what’s happened,’ Mr Bridge said.
Curtis was disqualified from driving for three years and must complete an extended retest if he were to apply for a licence.
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