An e-bike rider who was allegedly rammed by the ‘annoyed’ police officer he had ‘goaded’ had 40 convictions including driving offences, a court has heard.
PC Timothy Bradshaw caused then 17-year-old Mason McGarry to fracture his leg after he ‘took the law into his own hands’ and used ‘completely excessive’ force to ‘smack’ into the back of the battery-powered bike, jurors were told on Monday.
The Sussex Police officer is on trial accused of causing serious injury by dangerous driving through his ‘incredibly dangerous’ manoeuvre in Bognor Regis in November 2022.
On Tuesday, the court was told Mason McGarry had ‘stuck’ his middle finger up to PC Timothy Bradshaw, 55, in the build up to the collision, which saw the then teenager fall to the ground.
His passenger on the electric bike, Dominic Mizzi, told the jury that the officer looked ‘unhinged’ after he hit them and was ‘grinning and smiling’ as he made contact.
The court heard Mr McGarry had no licence and had previously been disqualified from driving – and later gained another conviction for his riding that evening.
Mr McGarry told jurors he had been travelling along a pavement before the accident and agreed that he was putting other people ‘at risk’.
He told the court: ‘I was just riding around, just having fun.
‘I was driving on the pavement and there was a police car on the right and I kept driving down and I was at a set of bollards and I (made a) hand gesture. I think I stuck my middle finger up.
‘I wasn’t driving fast.’
Giving evidence behind a screen, Mr McGarry, from Bognor Regis, estimated he was travelling at around 15 to 20 miles per hour on the e-bike which they had rented for £60 from Mr Mizzi’s brother.
He told the jury: ‘I heard a revving car again behind me and Dom shouted ‘police, police’ and in that time… I got thumped off my bike then I hit the floor and I must have blacked out for one to two seconds…I was shocked.’
The court heard he staggered to his feet and limped to a nearby house and was then taken to hospital.
Jurors were told that Mr McGarry has over 40 convictions for offences including robbery, theft, burglary, taking a car without consent, dangerous driving, driving without a licence, and assaulting an emergency worker.
Jurors were told that Mr McGarry and PC Bradshaw had known each other since the now 19-year-old was just 12 years old and did not get along ‘very well’.
Mr Mizzi, 22, told Portsmouth Crown Court he ‘just got hit straight off’ the bike and was ‘wiped out’ after the incident.
The witness, who himself has 22 previous convictions, said the officer was ‘just laughing at me and smiling at me.’
On the role of a police officer, he said: ‘There’s a difference between trying to protect and serve out community then them being unhinged and violent.’
Mr Gabb said PC Bradshaw used ‘completely excessive’ force to ‘smack’ into the back of the e-bike in what was described as an ‘incredibly dangerous’ manoeuvre.
The officer was said to have ‘had enough’ and pursued Mr McGarry after he made ‘unpleasant hand gestures’ and had been ‘goading’ the police officer and his colleague.
The prosecutor said that PC Bradshaw may have felt ‘annoyed and irritated’ by the actions but said officers must respond ‘appropriately and not act out of annoyance or irritation’.
Jurors were shown dash-cam footage of the moment the e-bike turned left onto a residential road with cars lined up either side.
The prosecutor said that PC Bradshaw followed ‘in pursuit’ of them, adding: ‘He didn’t radio for help, he didn’t radio for advice, he just did it.
‘What he did, and I suspect you will be shocked when you see it…he quite deliberately drives up and into the back of the e-bike, badly.
‘What did he do by way of warning or trying to get the e-bike to stop? The answer was nothing.’
Mr Gabb said the driver didn’t put his lights on or sound his siren.
‘He didn’t try to stop this e-bike for one second other than by virtue of what he did, and that was to smack into the back of it,’ the barrister added.
Jurors then saw the moment PC Bradshaw used the car to crash into the rear of the e-bike.
Mr Gabb said that after falling to the floor, teenager Mr McGarry ‘hobbled’ away with a fractured leg.
‘Young men on e-bikes can be a bit of a nuisance and that is putting it mildly,’ the prosecutor told jurors.
‘Some people riding these e-bikes are nothing more than a pain in the back side of the local police force and undoubtedly in this country we have something of a problem at the moment with how to deal with it.
‘But, what we don’t do, of course, is take the law into our own hands.
‘Whilst we as members of the public have every sympathy for police trying to do their jobs… you can’t, I respectfully submit, do what he did because that, as it were, is taking the law effectively into your own hands.’
Mr Gabb added: ‘No warning was given, just bang into the back of them.
‘How on earth is that a lawful application of force?’
PC Bradshaw from Bersted, West Sussex, pleaded not guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
The trial continues.