14/09/10…Accused crash driver admits telling lies

A MAN accused of causing the death of Thame teenager, Greg Stiles by dangerous driving, admitted in court today that he lied when he denied being the driver of the car suspected of causing the fatal crash.

Under questioning by prosecuting barrister, Neil Moore, 24 year-old Sammy Edwards, of Marsh, near Aylesbury, told Reading Crown Court that he had been given “bad Advice” by his father to deny being the driver of car to police, because: “I didn’t want them to frame me for what I hadn’t done.”

He now wanted to tell the truth, he said, because he realised he was “digging a big hole” and making things “a hundred times worse” for himself.

Edwards told the court how he drove his father’s blue BMW X5 along the A4129 Kingsey Road towards Thame, on Sunday, May 17, 2009, and decided to overtake three cars infront of him. He described how he overtook the first two cars, pulled partly in between the second car, a Corsa, and the front car, a Yaris, before checking that the road ahead was still clear, before completing the manoeuvre and successfully overtaking the Yaris.

When questioned by Mr Moore, Edwards denied that he had hesitated before overtaking the third car. He went on to describe how he then saw a blue car (Greg Stile’s Ford Fiesta)coming towards him on the opposite carriageway, with the driver shaking his hand at Edwards in an obscene gesture.

Edwards denied looking in his mirror after the incident and denied being aware that there had been a collision shortly afterwards, as he (Edwards said) would have been “round the corner” by the time it happened.

Mr Moore told Edwards: “I suggest you pulled out right in front of Mr Stiles, either to put the frighteners on him or in a risky manoeuvre.” To this Edwards replied: “If he wasn’t going so fast he wouldn’t have crashed! He was going over 100 miles an hour.”

Edwards denied continuing to drive in a dangerous way, of overtaking another four vehicles, including a horse box further along the road, as seen by witnesses, and of getting out of his car on the ring road and “giving aggrow” to another driver.

After hearing evidence from Sammy Edwards’ elder brother, Terry, who both brothers said in court was a passenger in the car at the time of the incident, Mr Moore sugggested that this was “a lie”. His reasoning was that Sammy Edwards had not mentioned the fact that his brother was in the car, until August 9, during his third or fourth interview with Police, nor had his brother Terry come forward in his younger brother’s defence until shortly before the case came to court.

Terry Edwards in his defence said that he had not come forward because he was never asked to by anyone, and that he had expected to be “pulled in” for questioning. He added: “It was clear from day one that the police had clearly decided Sam did it.”

Mr Moore concluded: “The truth is, you (Terry) were not in that car, and you have been asked to come along to help your brother!”

Terry Edwards emphatically replied that this was not the case and that he had asked his brother for a lift to the Skate Park in Thame where he hoped to see his two estranged sons who regularly went there.

The case continues tomorrow.