Head teacher dragged to his death under car, murder trial told

A head teacher was dragged to his death for more than a mile trapped under the wheels of a car driven by a man who allegedly knew he was there, a jury heard.

Simon Richardson, 35, denies the murder of 56-year-old Michael Mullins, who was struck and killed as he cycled home from work on 20 April.

Prosecutors claim Richardson stopped along the way, tried to dislodge the injured but still living cyclist, before driving on with Mullins remaining trapped under the wheels.

He also denies an alternative count of manslaughter and one of dangerous driving - relating to a police chase the following day - and is standing trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court.

Philip Barnes KC, opening the case for the prosecution, told the jury that "plainly fit" Mullins was cycling from Stretford Grammar School to his home in Northwich - his usual 19-mile (30-km) commute - at 18:07 BST on Paddock Lane in Warburton, Trafford.

As the married father-of-two approached the junction with Dunham Road, a black Volvo XC90 drove straight through give-way signs and road markings and struck the left side of his bike.

Barnes said Richardson, of no fixed address, did not stop and instead fled the scene towards Cheshire hitting speeds above 60mph.

The jury heard that the collision was witnessed by a number of other motorists who stopped and got out of their vehicles.

"That bike was obvious to the people who stopped to help. They could see it lying in the road," Barnes told the jury.

"But what they could not find, despite searching the hedgerows and the fields by the road, was the cyclist who had been riding it.

"Michael Mullins was nowhere to be seen."

The six men and six women of the jury were told they would be required to watch "difficult" video footage from CCTV and helicopter mounted cameras during the case.

One short clip, filmed from a camera outside La Boheme restaurant in Lymm, showed the car passing by with Mullins visibly being dragged under the front left side.

The jury were also shown footage of a steady, "consistent" trail of blood following the path of the Volvo.

Barnes said: "It would have taken no more than a glance in the rear-view mirror for the defendant to see that line being drawn on the road behind him.

"Again, for a moment, hard though it is, imagine what that, the scene you can see there on that image, must have sounded like."

The jury were told Richardson was driving with his cousin, Gabrielle Debotte, in the passenger seat when he struck Mullins.

Debotte told police that Richardson stopped for around 90 seconds on Wet Gate Lane, got out of the driver's side and made two attempts to pull Mullins from where he was stuck under the wheel assembly.

Barnes said: "Let us be quite clear about this; this was not Simon Richardson trying to help Michael Mullins, or realising that he was badly hurt and finally thinking that he should do the decent thing.

"This was Simon Richardson trying to pull Michael Mullins out from beneath that car and then leave him at the side of the road, to die if that was what it came to, so that he could flee the area and try to get away with what he had done before anybody caught up with him."

The jury heard Mullins was wearing an Apple Watch which was tracking his heart rate and movements as he cycled home.

Data from the watch showed, the jury heard, that Mullins' heart was still beating when the Volvo stopped on Wet Gate Lane.

However Barnes said: "The defendant got back in and drove on, absolutely certain - having now seen with his own eyes what he had already known from the moment he left the scene of the collision - that Michael Mullins was still stuck there, still alive, being ground away into the surface of the road."

Further CCTV footage showed the Volvo appearing to veer from side-to-side in what the prosecution suggested was a further attempt to dislodge Mullins.

This time, he came free and was left on a grass verge near Wet Gate Farm in Lymm.

Barnes said a motorcyclist who had witnessed the collision had followed the trail of blood to where Mullins was lying.

He said the victim was "barely alive", but as the witness called 999 Mullins appeared to take his final breaths.

Paramedics found he had died at the roadside when they arrived.

Mullins had sustained multiple internal injuries, but Barnes said the prosecution would argue he died not from the impact of the collision but from being dragged and then crushed by the wheels.

After the collision Richardson was recorded stopping at a petrol station in Lymm where he filled up his car and where Debotte was seen sitting inside with her head in her hands.

They then picked up some medication from a clinic before Debotte was dropped off at her home in Altrincham.

Later that evening Richardson swapped his Volvo for a Ford Transit Van owned by a friend, named as Daniel Richards, before spending the rest of the night "coming and going" from Debotte's home.

Barnes said by around lunch time the following day, having been up all night, nursery worker Debotte "broke down" in front of her colleagues and decided to go to the police.

The jury heard that the van being driven by Richardson was spotted in Failsworth, heading towards Oldham, and pursued by Greater Manchester Police.

Barnes said he was arrested and interviewed but did not answer questions.

The trial continues.

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