A Lord is set to stand trial after being accused of “blasting” through a zebra crossing on his moped when a pedestrian had stepped into London’s famous Kings Road.
Lord Charles Brocket, who appeared on the third series of I’m a Celebrity….Get Me Out of Here, is facing a criminal trial over the incident in Fulham on August 19.
He was reported to police by cyclist Oscar Blanco, who says he exclaimed “OMG” as Brocket’s Piaggio moped drove over the zebra crossing when a pedestrian had started to cross.
Footage of the incident from Mr Blanco allegedly shows the pedestrian was on the crossing when the moped “blasts through without even slowing down”.
Brocket, who has been charged with failing to accord precedence to a pedestrian at a zebra crossing, pleaded not guilty and told Bromley magistrates court it would not have been safe for him to stop.
“The video evidence shows that the pedestrian did not check both ways and stepped straight onto the crossing and as she stepped forward the evidence shows that I crossed the middle of the zebra crossing 0.7 seconds later.
“The government figures state that the safe stopping time for an emergency stop at 20mph is one second thinking time and one second stopping time, making a total of two seconds.
“I have had a motorbike for over fifty years without having any points on my licence.
“In this instance, the Toyota in front of me masked the pedestrian and as I had 0.7 seconds to perform an emergency stop I judged that this was unsafe to perform and so carried across the middle of the crossing at a safe distance from the pedestrian.”
The peer and old Etonian, 72, is the 3rd Baron Brocket, and inherited the title from his Conservative politician grandfather upon his death in 1967.
In 2004, he entered the Australian jungle for the ITV reality show, finishing fourth, and shortly afterwards he released his autobiography ‘Call Me Charlie’.
Court papers show Mr Blanco was cycling along the King’s Road towards Putney at around 6pm when he slowed for the pedestrian crossing.
“I was already stopped for a second or two yet a motorcycle rider came past on my right just as the pedestrian had started to cross”, he said.
“I don’t know how the motorcyclist did not see me giving way to the pedestrian.”
Describing the footage, he added: “You can hear me saying ‘OMG’ in the audio.”
Brocket, who lives in Fulham, was originally prosecuted through the Single Justice Procedure by the Metropolitan Police, and entered his not guilty plea in writing without an open court hearing.
His case has been adjourned for a trial in open court in the new year.
Police said Brocket identified himself as the moped rider on October 22. He did not take up the offer of an out-of-court disposal with a retraining course, and requested a court hearing instead to be able to fight the charge.
