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news
Gandalf Corner (Google Maps)Video: Sir Ian McKellen’s agent cleared of assaulting CyclingMikey
A jury has acquitted a theatrical agent whose clients include Lord of the Rings star Sir Ian McKellen of assault following an incident last year in which he drove at Mike van Erp – known on social media as CyclingMikey – and carried him on the bonnet of his Range Rover for around 20 metres.
The incident happened at a junction on the Outer Circle in London’s Regent’s Park that has earned the nickname ‘Gandalf Corner’ due to road safety campaigner van Erp stepping into the carriageway to stop motorists who ignore a bollard with a keep left arrow on it and drive on the wrong side of the road to try and get ahead of queueing traffic.
On the morning of 9 September last year, van Erp was positioned at that location with a helmet camera and a selfie-stick when Paul Lyon-Maris, aged 60, attempted to drive round the bollard in his Range Rover on the wrong side of the road.
Video shown in court, and now uploaded to CyclingMikey’s YouTube channel, shows Lyon-Maris claiming that he was running late for a doctor’s appointment, although he admitted during the trial that it was in fact an appointment with a physiotherapist.
James Dean, prosecuting, had told the court that the theatrical agent had “used his car as a weapon” during the incident, driving it at van Erp who ended up on the bonnet.
"The car continued, still on the wrong side of the road, towards the junction and turned right on the Outer Circle where it stopped around 20 yards (18 metres) to the left with Mr van Erp on the bonnet,” the prosecutor explained.
Lyon-Maris had admitted at an earlier magistrates’ court hearing to driving the wrong side of the keep left sign, but insisted that van Erp “threw himself on my bonnet.”
The jury took just under four hours to find the driver not guilty of dangerous driving and common assault, returning its verdict at lunchtime today.
The judge in the case, Recorder Jonathan Bellamy, said after the verdict had been returned: “I wish Mr Lyon-Maris luck in his profession and elsewhere.”
During this week’s trial, he told the court that while he acknowledged that it was “risky” to step out in front of motor vehicles, “I look at it in the same way as taking the keys off a drink driver – I want to stop the immediate harm.”
On his profile on Twitter, van Erp – who was a teenager when his father was killed by a drunk driver – says that he has “reported 1,000 drivers for 800 successful prosecutions in the last four years or so.”
He has more than 90,000 followers on YouTube, where his videos have amassed in excess of 47 million views in aggregate.
High-profile celebrities he has caught breaking the law on camera include the former world champion boxer Chris Eubank, and film director, Guy Ritchie.
One unsuccessful prosecution came earlier this year, however, when the Crown Prosecution Service decided at the last moment to drop a charge against former Chelsea and England footballer Frank Lampard, who now manages Everton, relating to using a handheld mobile phone while driving.
Writing on Twitter today after he had been unofficially told of the verdicts, van Erp said “I feel sick,” adding that “the video will be up soon enough, then you're welcome to draw your own conclusions.”
The video will be up soon enough, then you're welcome to draw your own conclusions.
— CyclingMikey (@MikeyCycling) October 13, 2022
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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81 comments
Another vigilante
https://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/23036029.residents-fear-death-due...
A MAN has been left frustrated with drivers who frequently and illegally park their vehicles at a pedestrian crossing in Wareham.
Wareham resident James Fletcher also fears that if it continues, someone else will lose their life - just years after a three-year-old boy died in 2018.
Please, think of the drivers.
Crikey! They're swarming!!
At least 3 dimwits active on one topic at the same time
They're just seizing an opportunity where the law has let down Mikey, as if that's a good thing. I'd say that Mikey's record on prosecutions speaks for itself.
That's little unfair - they're just those with a very noticably different (emotional) bias, which then directs their choice of facts, interpretation and indeed logic. That's a human universal! It's noticable here because the unusual concentration of people who've plenty of direct experience of the down-sides of motoring, the danger posed by drivers and the inconveniences for cyclists.
Plus the odd contrarian / WUM.
Unfortunately when your viewpoint is at odds with what you can see that leads to a belief in "alternative facts" or wacky explanations. "He punched my fist with his face! He was threatening me by retreating! He provoked me into the illegal act I committed 20 seconds before I encountered him!" (OK that one was icing).
Whilst not condoning illegal actions by any road user including cyclists, is CM really doing anything positive for cyclists, I say not. Despite what he might say, the reality is he is just another antagonist who is trying to boost his YouTube channel. If he wasn't he would be putting his efforts into promoting safety instead of provocation.
As a jury has found against CM maybe he should think about his actions.
And a warm welcome to another first time poster with a negative point of view, what a shock…
CM isn't actually trying to do anything for cyclists and doesn't claim to be (excepting the fact that of course we all benefit from safer roads), he is trying to stop drivers breaking the law in a dangerous manner. The fact that he sometimes does so using a bicycle is incidental.
Personally I think they lose points for not starting with "As a cyclist myself..."
That's because I'm not just a cyclist...
it was only negative if you condone CM actions. I'm looking for positive attitude to improve road safe for all, not as a keyboard/YouTube warrior or just when I'm riding my bicycle.
try it sometime
You don't think that calling out people for using their mobiles whilst driving or choosing to drive the wrong way up a one-way road or jumping a huge queue into oncoming traffic because they're late for a dentist appointment... You don't think that any of that is "promoting safety"?
Erm - so how do you define "promoting safety" in those situations?
@Brooksby that's not promoting safety. If you don't understand perhaps trying learning a little about it.
So, again, how would you define "promoting safety"? If what van Erp does, isn't?
Should he just walk past on the other side and it to the police to keep an eye out for miscreants? (cos we know how that would work out...)
As a jury has found against CM maybe he should think about his actions
As you are a dimwit, maybe you should think about a more suitable place for your views
Grow up, you don't know me, just like I dont know you.
I think we all know you, or at least we all know your type. Kudos for not trying to hide your nastiness and rudeness from the start though, most try to create a reasonable persona first then get into their real agenda, you've gone full gas from the off.
I don't think I've been nasty or rude and there's no need for me to hide behind anything as I don't have an agenda. I will shortly be off for a ride in the countryside so have a nice day.
Let's hope some arse in a Range Rover doesn't run you down then because they will be citing this wretched case as a precedent "he was in my way, so I knocked him out of the way, officer."
"that's quite all right sir, you be on your way now. Well, sonny I hope you've learned your lesson. The ambulance will be here in about 6 hours, so try not to freeze or bleed to death."
No agenda, just a thin grasp of the facts.
They haven't found against him at all. They have found against the Crown who thought driving along with someone on the bonnet for 20-30 metres is an offence. The actual action of driving the wrong side of the pedestrian refuge AND cutting the corner was pleaded guilty to by the driver. And it is that action that CM is trying to draw attention to originally and stop. If the driver had reversed back and joined the queue correctly, he wouldn't have even been charged for that.
You claim he provokes motorists into driving on the wrong side of the road at a junction ignoring a keep left instruction.
How does he do this ?
Mikey wasn't on trial btw The driver was.
CM is physically a soft "target" so to someone driving a vehicle at him he would seem incapable of causing damage to their vehicle if they came into contact so they have no qualms about driving into him, also the driver will say to themself " he'll get out of the way when I drive at him". If however, there was a perception that their intimidatory driving could damage or scratch their vehicle or cause serious injury to a baby / toddler they'd think twice, so I suggest CM step into the path of the oncoming vehicle pushing a pram, one like an old fashioned Silver Cross would be hard to miss.
In what sane world is repeatedly and deliberately driving a Range Rover into somebody carefully crossing the road NOT assault?!
Mikey wasnt crossing the road though. Stop putting up straw men.
(FWIW I have no problem with Mikey being Gandalf, but mischaracterising what he was doing isnt helpful.)
Nope. He was literally crossing the road.
Respectfully, no he wasn't. This is what CM does, he waits until he sees someone driving down the wrong side of that traffic island and steps out into the road to block the carriageway in order to send them back to go round the legal side. Nothing wrong with that in my opinion, but he's not crossing the road and I don't think (though obviously I don't speak for him) he would claim that he was.
Says the person who has quite clearly not watched the video.
Here is a link to the Metro article : https://metro.co.uk/2022/10/13/celeb-agent-cleared-of-dangerous-driving-...
Quote from the article : "Lyon-Maris admitted driving around the keep left sign but said he told the cyclist to ‘please’ get out of his way after he jumped on his bonnet.
Summing up, judge, Mr Jonathan Bellamy said:
‘The defendant is a man of previously good character.
‘The fact that he is 60 and of good character could mean he is less likely to commit the offences with which he has been charged.
‘He said he did not drive at Mr van Erp, but that he jumped onto the bonnet of his vehicle.’"
The title of the article is "Celeb agent cleared because vigilante cyclist jumped onto his Range Rover bonnet"
I'll leave you to draw your own conclusions but I think I can see a possible reason why the jury cleared him.
He may have said 'please' after Mikey 'jumped on his bonnet' - however he also drove into Mikey repeatedly before Mikey was on his car's bonnet.
I'm not a lip reader, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't saying "Please"...
If he said that after Mikey was already on the bonnet, and then didn't become stationary for a good 20 metres or so, then how did he expect him to get out of his way?
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