Biker's widow who paid for probe calls for police chief to resign

Motorcyclist’s widow demands chief constable resigns after she was forced to carry out her own investigation into the crash that killed him following police bungles

• Retiree David Fudge, 66, was killed after William Curtis, 88, drove into his path
• Bedfordshire Police told widow Claire Montgomery no action would be taken
• Force handed file to CPS only after she paid £2,500 for an independent report
• Widow says chief should resign as Curtis convicted of death by careless driving

The widow of a motor-cyclist killed in a crash has called for a chief constable to resign after she had to pay for an accident report to convince officers to take action against the driver.

Retired engineer David Fudge, 66, was with fellow motorcycle club members when William Curtis, 88, pulled into his path.

Bedfordshire Police told Mr Fudge’s grieving widow Claire Montgomery no further action would be taken against Curtis after interviewing him at home.

Claire Montgomery (left) said the Chief of Bedfordshire Police should ‘fall on his sword’ after they did not take action after the death of her husband David Fudge (right), 66

Claire Montgomery widow of motorcyclist David Fudge who was killed in November 2018

Miss Montgomery, 68, yesterday called for Bedfordshire Chief Constable Garry Forsyth (pictured) – who is standing down next month – to resign immediately

David Fudge was out with fellow motorcycle club members when William Curtis (pictured), who is now 88, did a U-turn with his Hyundai on the A4146 near Billington, Bedfordshire, and fatally crashed into him in November 2018

It handed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service only after she paid thousands of pounds for an independent expert report that found Curtis was solely to blame.

He was convicted of causing death by careless driving on Monday and will be sentenced next month.

Miss Montgomery, 68, yesterday called for Bedfordshire Chief Constable Garry Forsyth – who is standing down next month – to resign immediately.

She said her husband was treated as a ‘perpetrator, not a victim’.

The force also claimed it did not employ any of Curtis’s relatives but his granddaughter was a civilian employee and her husband attended Curtis’s interview.

Miss Montgomery was also referred to as ‘that woman’ in emails. No one has been disciplined as a result of the fiasco and a sergeant involved in the case has been promoted.

Miss Montgomery, a retired social worker, said: ‘Was it incompetence… or laziness? I don’t know.

‘Quite frankly, I think the chief constable should be falling on his sword. I was considered a nuisance – the family liaison officer said no one would prosecute a little old man with dementia. I am appalled.’ Mr Fudge was killed on November 18, 2018, as he carried out a legal overtake on the A4146 near Billington, Bedfordshire.

The road was a three-lane 60mph single carriageway. Curtis, of Irchester, Northamptonshire, had missed a roundabout and was trying to turn on to the two-lane northbound side, his trial heard.

Jurors were told how there were errors in the original crash report.

Mr Fudge (pictured) had enjoyed riding motorbikes for 50 years and had never reported being in an accident before

The widow of a motorcyclist who was told her husband was partly to blame for the crash which killed him and that the driver would not be prosecuted has got justice after paying for her own investigation. Pictured, Claire Montgomery and her late husband David Fudge, 66

Claire Montgomery and her husband David Fudge, pictured left, were set to go to Costa Rica to celebrate his retirement the day before the crash

Miss Montgomery, of St Albans, Hertfordshire, yesterday told how, when she passed the report to expert David Loat, he contacted her within ten minutes to say it was a ‘disgrace’.

She passed his findings to Mr Forsyth, who ‘finally conceded defeat after several weeks’. The case was referred to Essex Police for a review before it was given to the CPS and Curtis was charged.

The jury’s verdict was secondary to the ‘four years of hell’ Miss Montgomery had been put through, she said.

At the time the Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire roads policing unit was under close scrutiny. A 2018 review found ‘failures… requiring immediate attention’ within investigations.

A source at Bedfordshire Police said no one had been disciplined as the problems were caused by ‘structural and organisational failings, rather than individuals’.

In a statement, Mr Forsyth said if not for Miss Montgomery’s campaigning ‘there is real potential this would have slipped by and justice would have been missed’.

Miss Montgomery has been reimbursed for the report, understood to have cost around £2,500.

Source: Read Full Article