Driver admits causing death of Chris Boardman’s mother
Carol Boardman died after she was knocked off her bike by a pick-up truck driven by Liam Rosney in North Wales in July 2016.
A driver has pleaded guilty to causing the death of the mother of Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman.
Liam Rosney, 33, admitted causing the death of Carol Boardman by careless driving as his trial was due to start at Mold Crown Court on Monday.
He denied the more serious charge of causing death by dangerous driving.
Matthew Curtis, prosecuting, said the Crown had carefully considered the situation with police, family liaison officers and experts.
He said: “In those circumstances we do not invite a trial in relation to count one.”
Rosney, of Welland Drive in Connah’s Quay, had originally faced trial in July but the jury was discharged.
The prosecution had alleged he was on the phone to his wife, Victoria, seconds before the crash happened.
On Monday, a jury was sworn in for the trial, which had been expected to last three or four days, but was discharged after Rosney changed his plea on the charge of death by careless driving.
Mr Curtis said that, in the minutes before the crash, at the junction of Mold Road and Ffordd Llanarth, Rosney took three separate phone calls while driving his Mitsubishi pick-up truck, which did not have a hands-free facility.
He said: “The phone was being used on speaker mode, not requiring the defendant to handle the phone as he was talking, but plainly to accept or reject or end calls.
“The call ended prior to entry on to the roundabout, we know that from billing data.
“What we will say the case is, then, is that the defendant continued to be distracted by a) the telephone calls which he had been taking, and b) his mobile telephone, which was on the passenger seat inside his vehicle.
“We know he did not see Mrs Boardman and first realised he may have collided with her when his vehicle was physically riding over Mrs Boardman’s body.”
He said a witness, Kayleigh Anders, saw the defendant looking down towards his lap and talking, which gave the impression he was still talking on the phone.
Rosney and his wife had both been charged with perverting the course of justice after it was alleged that they deleted call logs from their phones, but the charges were dropped following prosecution evidence in the first trial in July.
He adjourned sentencing until January 31 and told Rosney that all sentencing options, including custody, would be open to him.
Cyclist Boardman, who won individual pursuit gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games, paid tribute to his mother after the crash.
Writing on social media in 2016, the 50-year-old said: “Our mum was the most positive, outgoing person you could ever hope to meet and her generosity of spirit inspired everyone she met.
“Many of our childhood memories involve my mother and the outdoors, walking out over Hoylake sandbank, swimming in the deep gullies or hunting for fossils on Llandegla Moor in North Wales.
“Wanting to share her passion for cycling, even well into her 70s, she often took groups of young novices out on their first forays into North Wales.
“She leaves behind Keith, her partner for more than half a century, Lisa and I, and a large, loving family. We cannot yet conceive a world without her in it.
“We love you, Carol, may the wind be ever at your back.”
