A barber feels he can "move forward" in his life after being cleared in a trial over a car crash outside a lockdown-breaking house party.
Lewis Johnson, of Fleur-de-lis in Blackwood, went to the party on April 11 last year with Jordan Miller whom he had recently become friendly with through cutting his hair.
Mr Johnson accepted he crashed Mr Miller's Jaguar X-Type into a parked car after drinking heavily at the event in Adam Street, Abertillery.
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But the 29-year-old insisted Mr Miller had given him permission to drive it — and when the defendant appeared at Newport Magistrates' Court he was cleared of aggravated vehicle-taking.
After the trial he said he was unhappy to have been brought to court. He had already been sentenced to unpaid work last May because he refused to give police a breath sample after the crash.
He told WalesOnline: "I stuck to my guns in the courtroom and hey presto I won the case... With today's result I can move forward."
The court heard the names of seven people who reportedly attended the party. Covid rules at the time banned households gathering indoors.
Police were called at 4.40am following a report of a Jaguar crash in Adam Street, said prosecutor Emily Evans.
"The owner of the car was a Mr Jordan Miller who indicated his friend Mr Johnson had taken the keys to the vehicle without his consent, driven it up the street, and collided with a parked vehicle," Ms Evans added.
"Mr Johnson's words were slurred. He said: 'I only moved it down the street for my mate's van to get out in the morning.' He was arrested."
Wearing an orange snood, Mr Miller told the court: "We arrived at the house party at about 7pm. I drove my Jaguar there. I was drinking Budweiser. That's my favourite drink. I had about seven or eight."
Mr Miller claimed he had left his keys on a TV stand and had not given Mr Johnson permission to drive his car. He said he heard a "commotion" in the street before going outside and seeing Mr Johnson inside the crashed car.
"I stood in the middle of the road so he couldn't drive away. Being blunt I said: 'What the hell you doing?' Before I could retaliate the police turned up. I'm guessing they'd been called by the neighbours."
Mr Miller said there was damage to the rear of his car. Asked if he knew how that was caused, he nodded towards Mr Johnson in the dock and said: "By him reversing into a Nissan Juke."
Isobelle Thompson, defending Mr Johnson, pointed out Mr Miller had named only five friends at the party. "Why not mention others were there?" she asked him.
He replied: "They wanted their names left out of it because obviously it breached Covid rules. It was a house party."
Ms Thompson said: "So you're at a house party, not your own house, and you thought it wise to put your keys on the TV stand?"
Mr Miller replied that he trusted his friends. He said he had not been aware of Mr Johnson leaving the house before the crash.
But Ms Thompson pointed out Mr Miller's police statement mentioned Mr Johnson "heading to the door". She told Mr Miller his account was "all over the place", adding: "You really don't know what went on that evening do you?"
Mr Miller replied: "I know he took my car without my consent, that's what I do know."
Asked why he did not himself call police, Mr Miller said: "I would have dealt with it myself."
"What do you mean by that?" Ms Thompson asked. He replied: "If someone's nicked my car I would have hit him."
"Assaulted him you mean?" said the solicitor. Mr Miller responded: "Yeah."
Mr Johnson, who wore a floral shirt in the dock, claimed he moved the car to make room for a Ford Transit van driven by his friend James Freeman, who was going to give him a lift home from the party.
When Ms Thompson said this to Mr Miller he aimed a quizzical expression at the defendant. "I literally do not know who that [James Freeman] is," he said. "I haven't got the foggiest."
Jordan Miller's wife Natalie also gave evidence. She said she saw Mr Johnson "pick something up" from the TV cabinet and she "assumed" it was her husband's keys.
Asked what she had been drinking that night she said: "Oh Christ, I can't remember. Maybe lager or gin. Quite a bit."
Mrs Miller told the court there were only five people at the party. Presiding Justice Nicholas Hobbs told her: "Don't worry about Covid rules or dropping someone in it. You need to tell it as it was."
The court clerk interjected: "I do have to step in here. I am obliged to give you a warning that you don't have to answer anything that might implicate you in a crime."
Mrs Miller again said only five people were at the party. When Ms Thompson asked if it would surprise her that her husband had just told the court about more people attending, Mrs Miller replied: "It would surprise me actually."
In his police interview the defendant had said: "Just because I was in the vehicle doesn't mean I did the damage." But he later accepted responsibility for crashing the car.
Mr Johnson told the court he had drunk about half a bottle of whiskey and a can of Carlsberg. He added: "I asked Miller to move his car and he said he couldn't. So I said: 'Do you mind if I move it then?' And he told me: 'If you feel okay go and move it then.'
"Before I got into the vehicle I continued drinking an hour or two longer. How did I get the keys? Miller gave them to me. I went outside with Miller and another gent called Gavin."
Mr Johnson said he remembered being in the car with Mr Miller and after that his memory went blank. The prosecutor Ms Evans pointed out he had not mentioned this in his police interview to which Mr Johnson said he did not think it was relevant. Ms Evans said: "That's because it didn't happen did it?"
She asked him why he said in his police interview that he had drunk a whole 70cl bottle of whiskey then in court claimed he only had half a bottle. Mr Johnson replied he had drunk the rest of the bottle when he went back into the house to collect his belongings before being taken to the police station.
Mr Johnson added that some of the things he said in his interview may not be accurate because he "wasn't 100%" sober. "I explained this to my solicitor," he said.
The prosecutor said: "So your solicitor knew you weren't fit to be interviewed but allowed you to be anyway?"
"Not exactly," replied Mr Johnson. Following the trial his now-lawyer Ms Thompson told WalesOnline she was not his solicitor at the time.
Closing her case Ms Thompson said: "The reliability of Mr Miller is undermined by him leaving people out of his account due to Covid rules after taking an oath to tell the truth and nothing but the truth."
She argued Mr Miller had either been too drunk to remember giving his friend consent to drive the Jaguar or that he had lied to avoid getting in trouble for letting a drunk man drive his car.
After deliberating for about 30 minutes and finding Mr Johnson not guilty Mr Hobbs said: "The burden of proof lies with the Crown. There are very few issues in this case that we can establish as facts. One thing we can be sure of is that all parties consumed copious amounts of alcohol. The accounts of the witnesses do not match and we are left with unanswered questions."
Mr Johnson had already been sentenced to a 20-month driving ban and 60 hours of unpaid work after pleading guilty to failing to provide a breath sample.
He told WalesOnline: "I've been on probation because of it, it's taken over my life a little bit and stopped me moving forward in my career. I am a barber and hairdresser and my plans are to open my own shop. With the setbacks of court and probation I have been unable to do that. With today's result I can move forward."
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