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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Sam Elliott-Gibbs

Biker trio who killed 'Hells Angels' grandad who 'wore wrong colours' JAILED

Three members of a notorious motorcycle club have been jailed for a combined 20 years for killing a rival 'Hells Angels' grandad who 'wore wrong colours on their patch'.

David Crawford was knocked off his bike, dragged hundreds of metres under a van and then left for dead by the side of the road.

Chad Brading, Benjamin Parry and Thomas Pawley were all found guilty of manslaughter

Prosecutors argued in November he was "deliberately targeted" by a rival Bandidos gang who were blood-thirsty for revenge.

Parry was handed a 12 year sentence 'taking into account aggravating and mitigating factors'.

Pawley was given four years for his part in the killing, while Brading has also been handing a sentence for four years.

The trio make no response to the sentence and were led away quietly.

Parry was told he would serve two thirds in prison and then released on licence. Pawley would serve half of his four year sentence, as would Brading. All three would get credit for their time served in custody.

Parry was also disqualified from driving for 10 years.

His Kawasaki motorcycle on a slip-road of the A38 near Plymouth (SWNS)

Judge Mr Justice Neil Garnham said the issue of wearing jackets was, in the "infantile world of motorcycle clubs" and it it "seemed to cause great offence".

He added that he found that there was an agreement for the men to give what was "locally known as a 'slap' - meaning a punch" or some kind of assault "to cause some relatively minor injury or pain"

He added: "That's not what happened".

The judge told Parry that the footage of the incident made "frankly sickening viewing".

He noted that Parry did not stop "even though you knew you had struck him" adding that he continued "almost 1,000m".

He said Mr Crawford was stuck beneath Parry's vehicle "being grated along the tarmac throughout that ghastly journey".

He said that if Parry did not know what had happened before to Mr Crawford, he "certainly knew" when the body was dislodged as he turned off the A38, adding: "even then you didn't have the common decency to stop".

He said to Pawley and Brading that while there was a "common enterprise" to give Mr Crawford a "slap", the jury founjd there was no common intention that Mr Crawfor should be run down and serioulsy hurt or killed.

He said the pair of them in the Mercedes "did not stay to give aid" to Mr Crawford "or call for police or ambulance".

David Crawford's clothing on the day he died (SWNS)

He said Mr Crawford was "utterly innocent of all this - he had been out for a ride on his bike"

He said the trio had "absolutely no business trying to dictate who rode their bikes in Devon or what they wore when doing so"

Paul Cavin KC, for the CPS, told the jury during their trial that it was considered "insulting" for a member of one club to ride in a rival club's patch wearing 'colours' - the badges and emblems of that club.

A jury found them guilty of killing a 59-year-old grandfather on the A38 in 2021.

Last November, Parry, aged 42, was found not guilty of murdering Mr Crawford on the evening of May 12 2022 , but guilty of manslaughter, having offered the plea during the trial at Plymouth Crown Court.

A video shows the moment the three men conspired to kill the biker by driving a van into him (SWNS)

As a result of their verdict Mr Justice Neil Garnham told the jury they could no longer consider a verdict of murder to the other two men jointly charged with murder.

The jury later returned guilty verdicts of manslaughter for both men, by a majority verdict of 11 to 1.

Pawley, of Heather Walk, Ivybridge and Brading, of Wright Close, Devonport, along with Parry were remanded into custody.

The victim was initially knocked onto the bonnet and then under the van - where he was dragged before being dislodged at a slip road further down the A38.

Plymouth Crown Court heard he was pronounced dead at the scene and had suffered a "horrific" number of injuries consistent with being dragged along a road.

Mr Cavin said late last year that the three defendants had "worked together" through a series of calls and 'signals' to hunt down the victim and said none of them had the "decency to stop or call an ambulance."

Benjamin Parry is recorded slamming into the back of David Crawford's bike (SWNS)

The trial at Plymouth Crown Court also heard the Cornwall-based Red Chiefs Motorcycle Club had an issue with the Red Chiefs riding in Cornwall with their colours and vice versa.

But in police interview, Brading claimed "nobody set out to kill anybody."

He added: "It was just never meant to happen".

Sean Brunton KC, defending Parry, said his client hit Mr Crawford but claimed it was "nothing other than a spur of the moment act" and a "catastrophic error of judgement by him".

His earlier manslaughter plea had been rejected by the prosecution.

Representatives of Pawley and Brading said murder was "not in the mind" of their clients at the time and did not conspire with Parry on the attack.

David's wife Ann-Marie Crawford wrote a letter which was read out in court saying that they met in 1995 and they had been married 21 years.

She described him as the life and soul of the party and was passionate about rugby, having played since his school days onwards, up until he got much older.

She said he was well known in Plymouth and Ivybridge and they would frequently encounter old friends when they visited the city.

In mitigation, Mr Brunton said Parry was "genuinely and highly remorseful" adding "he knows and accepts that he must pay a high price, for his idiocy, for his aberration, for his dreadful mistake".

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