A police officer who killed a 74-year-old motorcycle passenger while responding to a 999 call has been jailed – despite the victim’s family asking for him to be spared prison.
PC Mark Roberts, 57, went through a red light and hit motorcyclist Ronald Pinkney and his wife Muriel in a marked police car.
Mrs Pinkney suffered fatal head and neck injuries in the crash on a 30mph stretch of road. Her husband suffered a bleed on the brain and multiple fractures.
Army veteran Roberts, who was travelling at 43mph as he approached the lights before the crash, was jailed for 27 months at Teesside Crown Court on Monday after being found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving and causing serious injury by dangerous driving.
In a victim impact statement read to the court, Mr and Mrs Pinkney’s daughter, Dawn Hunter-Pinkney, said the family didn’t want the former officer to be jailed ‘for doing his job’.
She said the family ‘don’t blame the officer for what happened’, adding: ‘We were angry but the more we hear about why the officer was driving the way he was, the more we understand.
‘We do accept this is a very tragic accident with a very tragic outcome, but sending the officer to prison won’t bring Mam back.’
The court heard Roberts, of Darlington, was answering a grade-one emergency call about a choking baby when he went through a light which had been on ‘stop’ for six seconds.
He was still travelling at around 25mph when his vehicle collided with the couple in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, in July 2022.
Roberts said the ambulance service had requested assistance about a choking five-week-old baby, which indicated paramedics did not believe they could get to the patient before police.
He said he took his vehicle from Whickham police station, activated his blue lights and sirens and made his way through traffic and red lights.
Seconds before the collision with the Pinkneys’ motorbike, the officer saw a white van make an emergency stop, he said.
‘I couldn’t see anything else before travelling towards the junction. The next thing I recall is there was a bang and both airbags deployed and I hit the windscreen, which knocked me out for a few seconds. I believe this was a tragic accident.’
The court heard Roberts was ‘heartbroken’ by the accident and had led a ‘remarkable life of public service’, joining the police after serving in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan and Iraq.
Judge Francis Laird KC said: ‘Only a custodial sentence can be justified for these offences. Your speed as you approached the junction was too high.’
