Case against woman who struck 14-year-old cyclist is dropped

Wednesday 24 May 2023

The driver of a vehicle which hit a 14-year-old cyclist in St. Martin three years ago has had the case against her dropped.

Julia Strachan was accused of causing serious injury while driving a motor vehicle without due care or attention in March 2020, which she denied.

This morning, Legal Adviser Francis Burak told the Magistrate’s Court that the prosecution was offering no evidence and asked the court to dismiss the charge.

Magistrate Bridget Shaw did so, and also lifted Mrs Strachan’s bail conditions.

Explaining why the case had been dropped, Mr Burak said that the prosecution was “duty bound to constantly review the evidence”. 

Recently, he said, a review had been carried out by a road traffic investigator, who had concluded that there was “insufficient evidence for realistic chance of conviction”.

Dismissing the case, Mrs Shaw awarded costs “in principle” to the defence, adding that the prosecution should make any submission to the Judicial Greffe on that matter.

The Magistrate also told the court that she had returned from holiday yesterday to find a letter sent to her home address from the parents of the boy.

She said this was “highly irregular” and stressed that she had not read the letter and it would “not have bearing whatsoever on my decisions in this case.”

Mrs Strachan had been due to stand trial in July after failing in a bid earlier this year to halt criminal proceedings against her.

Mrs Strachan was not in court today to formally hear that the case against her had been dropped.

At the beginning of the hearing, the Magistrate said she had expected Mrs Strachan to be there, but was then told by the Court Greffier that she had been excused from attending.