Jury cleared Hell’s Angel in punch trial

A DAD seriously hurt by a Hell’s Angels biker as he put petrol in the family car may never learn the identity of his leather-clad attacker.

A jury yesterday cleared the Hell’s Angels leader who had been charged with the violence on the forecourt of Cardiff Bay’s Asda garage.

Victim Neil Lake, who had his right cheek shattered by a punch in a dispute at the pumps, took down the registration of his assailant’s Harley Davidson bike.

It led police to Sean Timmins, 37, the vice-president of Hell’s Angels in Wolverhampton, but he told Cardiff Crown Court he had been more than 100 miles away. He was working in his hometown that Sunday morning last October when Mr Lake called in for petrol with his wife, young son and father-in-law in the car.

The biker said a “brother” Angel had been riding around with the same number plates as him and he added that he had “gone nuts” when he found out.

But he explained that it would be against club rules for him to name the other man.

“If it means me being in contempt of court and being jailed, then so be it – I will not tell you who it is because I’ll be thrown out of the Hell’s Angels after 10 years,” he told Judge David Wynn Morgan. He said the 300 Hell’s Angels in the UK and those abroad prided themselves on living within their own rules, although the laws of the land were also important to them. He himself “ate, slept and breathed” the Hell’s Angels lifestyle.

The prosecution was allowed to tell the jury of his previous convictions, which included offences of criminal damage, actual bodily harm, wounding and possessing an offensive weapon.

But the Hell’s Angels leader, who denied wounding Mr Lake, from Barry, with intent, told the court: “I have never been convicted of any offence by a jury. I have always admitted everything I’ve done and pleaded guilty in court.”

The Cardiff jurors – seven men and five women – deliberated their decision for a day and asked to view again the CCTV video from the Asda forecourt before returning their unanimous not guilty verdict.

Mr Timmins, whose alibi was a former bank manager and acquaintance of his father, who said he had been laying a drive for him that day, left the courtroom immediately the verdict was announced.


original article
walesonline