E-bike rider spared jail after killing great-grandfather, 91, while riding on pavement

A man who killed an elderly army veteran by hitting him with an e-bike on the pavement has been spared jail.

Clifford Cage, of Rochester, Kent, was riding his e-bike along City Way in Rochester when he hit James ‘Jim’ Blackwood, 91, on July 6 2023.

The great-grandfather was crossing the pavement back to his house, having just put the rubbish out.

Cage, an agency worker, was travelling about 12mph on the road when he knocked Jim over just before 7am.

CCTV played to the court showed Jim pulling his wheelie bins in a way that showed he was ‘elderly and frail’, the judge said.

Cage phoned 999, telling the dispatcher that he did not see Jim stepping out from behind an overgrown bush.

The former Royal Engineer was ‘sort of coherent’ at the time, Cage added, as he encouraged Jim to try not to get up while waiting for an ambulance.

Cage cycled on the pavement as he had two ‘near misses’ when riding the road of City Way, a major street that stretches through East Ward.

He told police that he thought it wasn’t illegal to cycle on the path.

Jim died of internal injuries three months after the crash.

His daughter, Christine White, said her father’s death had left a ‘huge emotional toll’ on the family.

‘It’s painful to see mum suffering so much, she really doesn’t want to be here without her partner of 72 years,’ Christine said.

‘I miss dad terribly. I was a real daddy’s girl.’

Blackwood’s wife Hanni said in a statement read to the court that ‘there’s not a day’ she doesn’t think of him.

Her husband had served in Northern Ireland ‘but was killed outside his front door’.

Defending Cage, Danny Moore KC said his client stayed at the scene because ‘he’s a decent human being’.

He said: ‘The knowledge his actions have caused the death of another human being is something he will carry with him for the rest of his life.’

Judge Julian Smith said that while Cage showed ‘genuine remorse’, he ‘ignored the risks’ of cycling on the pavement.

Jim, he added, ‘suffered significantly’ in his final days when he was bedbound and immobile.

Cage was sentenced to 15 months behind bars, suspended for two years, which means he will not serve prison time as long as he meets certain conditions.

The judge also ordered Cage to carry out 15 days of rehabilitative activity requirement and 180 hours of unpaid work.

The Crown Prosecution Service said this is the first case of its kind for a manslaughter conviction linked to cycling on the pavement.

Senior Crown Prosecutor Joe Pullen said the incident captured how ‘dangerous’ it is to cycle on the pavement.

‘Cage admitted he had never thought about the danger he could pose to others,’ Pullen added.

‘It was that simple lack of thought that led to James’ death.’

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