Telford 'walking man' found not guilty of causing danger to road users

Andrew Urwin denied an offence of causing a danger to road users on the A442 at Telford’s Eastern Primary about 10.10pm on December 30 last year.

The 50-year-old yesterday told Telford Magistrates Court that he enjoyed going for night walks and that he had done nothing wrong.

Giving evidence at the trial on Thursday, witness Charlotte Harris said: “There was a man wearing all black clothes walking along the road on the right side. We saw him at 100 yards walking against the traffic. He was in the middle of the road almost on the white line.

“The only reason I saw him was because he had reflectors on the back of his shoes.”

Miss Harris said the incident happened about 500 yards from the Shell garage.

Representing himself, Urwin, of Clanbrook, Stirchley, Telford, at first denied he was there.

Urwin told the court: “Where that girl said she saw me, I was never there. Unless she saw somebody else, but I was nowhere there.”

Refusing

However, under cross-examination by Mrs Amy Davies, prosecuting, Urwin conceded that he had crossed the A442 at ‘a distance’ from the petrol station.

Footage was played in court of him refusing to give his name to officers who arrived at about 10.40pm and he was subsequently arrested when he refused to co-operate.

He said he was on the grass verge when the officers pulled up alongside him at the Halesfield exit and not in the road as alleged by the two officers.

Chairman Mrs Helen Thompson said that as the officers arrived in the area 30 minutes later the bench could not be sure that the man seen by Miss Harris, was in fact Urwin or someone else.

She also said there were discrepancies in the accounts given by the officers relating to Urwin's position in the road.

Mrs Thompson said: "We find Mr Urwin's version was plausible and credible."

"However, we have sympathy with the officers who were concerned for your safety and following a call from a concerned member of the public. If you had co-operated things might have been very different.

"We would urge you to wear high visibility clothing when walking around the lanes and roads late at night so that you can be seen."