TRF Forums

I agree we should allow the courts to determine guilt or not of the farmer.
The incident actually took place in Oct 2010, why has it taken 17months for a case to be brought against this farmer?
As I understand it, if you hit a burglar who is robbing you or someone attacking you or a member of your family in your own home, within a very short period of time you are hauled off to the cop shop and prosecuted for GBH at the minimum.
So why is it a guy who said he only wanted "to frighten them" and chased them in his car and then kills someone, waits 17 months before being prosecuted?
Even the police, who are trained in fast pursuit, are not supposed to chase someone with a vehicle so close that they run them over. They are supposed to maintain a safe distance and not "push" them into behaving even more recklessly due to fear or whatever.

However this was not the main reason for my post, I was actually trying to open a discussion on why is it we have such a low public profile. It appears that even guys who are actively trail riding have either not heard of us or perhaps choose not to become members. If these guys had become members perhaps they would have been more confident on where they could and could not ride. And less likely to have got lost, though we all make mistakes. At the very least they would have known that all the info they needed was on the Hants CC web site which clearly shows the routes we can use and even which roads have TRO's. I don't think they were "young hooligans" riding anywhere, the guy who died was 48.

Update:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-17198054

Rougharse-Racing is right this post runs the risk of getting the case thrown out of court. Then guilty or not the farmer walks away a free man.

Bit late for that the trial has finished

i cant believe this guy got away with all counts , its in todays Daily Mail paper but the article seems to contradict itself , in one part it seems he admits he was on hes way to a football ground saw the group of bikers and gave chase and admits he wanted to scare the bikers , but then he claims he just came round the corner and bumped into the bikers which would surely indicate he was travelling to fast .. it seems far to often now that bikers are killed by drivers and simply be let off without charge

Tosh.

Now that he's been acquitted, I'd like to reverse my opinion that he should be banished.

I do this regardless of any risk this comment poses to any appeal.

"told the jury he had suffered from 10 years of trouble from bikers and the police had not stopped them."

This is how things get out of hand, maybe the TRF should set up a contact number or several for people to contact if they are troubled by bikers............would this serve a purpose?

My question to the remaining (alive) bike riders is ; why did you run/ride away? If you were lost, then THE best bloke to ask is the land owner who will direct you to the correct route. Just stop, apologise and ask for directions. Simple and no-one gets hurt.
I suspect they were up to no good and got their just deserts. Don't forget the recent case in the papers of some idiots killing loads of sheep just for fun.

My point was that any post that assumed guilt of an un-convicted man, as some did by suggesting an appropriate penalty was quite probably in contempt of court when made during the trial.
Despite being called “The Bar” I can assure you that this forum is hosted on the World Wide Web, can be accessed by all and is not a chat between mates in the pub.
My concern was that if comment on this topic was encouraged during the trial then there was a likelihood of more blatant or contentious comments being posted.
I was disappointed by the attitude one in particular who despite being tasked with moderating this forum appeared to be reckless as to the potential consequence of their own and others’ comments or the potential damage to the reputation of the TRF and trail riding had the comments got out of hand.
If the roles were reversed for example the prosecution of TRF members and had the posts been on the NFU site then I’m sure that many on this forum would have thought the comments unjust.