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Family of John Radford face further wait for funeral

No decision yet over further charges for driver who hit Huddersfield CTC chairman

The family of cycle campaigner John Radford face a further delay for a funeral after the lawyer for the driver who hit him requested the coroner not release his body.

Michael Gledhill was found guilty of causing serious injury by dangerous driving after hitting Radford on July 31 last year.

John Radford spent over a year in hospital with severe brain damage until he was allowed to go home. He died shortly afterwards.

After his death, West Yorkshire police referred Mr Radford's case to the Attorney General to see if further charges could be brought against Gledhill.

The Huddersfield Examiner's Neil Atkinson reports Leeds Crown Court heard that the coroner was proposing to release Mr Radford’s body.

Stephen Grattage representing Gledhill, who was not at court, said that might cause problems for the defence.

Judge Christopher Batty was told a post mortem had been carried out but the defence had not had the opportunity for anything they needed to be considered.

Judge Batty said he hoped things could be done quickly and if the defence were unable to carry out their own investigations that the coroner reconsider his position.

John Radford was chairman of Huddersfield CTC and a Yorkshire regional representative on the CTC’s national council.

He is credited with spearheading the CTC's Road Justice campaign in West Yorkshire by meeting with his PCC, Mark Burns-Williamson, to deliver the Road Justice report.

Mr Radford, who was 69 at the time, was on his way home from a ride when was knocked off his bike after an altercation with Gledhill, 23.

The collision left him with severe brain injuries from which he never recovered.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court found Gledhill guilty of causing serious injury through dangerous driving

John Radford died during the night of November 4 with wife Pat and daughters Emma and Helen by his bedside.

Authorities are still waiting to hear from the Attorney General whether further charges can be laid against Gledhill. He was due to be sentenced on November 25, but that has been deferred pending the Attorney General's decision.

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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4 comments

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IanW1968 | 9 years ago
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They had an argument and the young fella drove his car into John Radford, that sound like Murder to me.

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birzzles | 9 years ago
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Why is it murder with a knife but causing death through dangerous driving with a car.

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jacknorell replied to birzzles | 9 years ago
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birzzles wrote:

Why is it murder with a knife but causing death through dangerous driving with a car.

Murder is with intent, manslaughter without intent. So you should be asking why it's not manslaughter.

Unless, of course, the vehicle is intentionally used to murder. Which has been charged previously against those that murder with vehicles.

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Airzound | 9 years ago
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At least this f****r Gledhill was caught charged, prosecuted and convicted, not like Michael Mason who was mown down and killed. The driver who did it got off Scott free claiming SMIDSY. Is Gledhill currently locked up or out whilst it is decided whether he faces further charges / sentenced?

RIP John Radford.

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