By Jeremy Sollars
LEGAL argument this week delayed the start of the trial of a truck driver charged with the hit and run death of a cyclist near Inglewood on Anzac Day 2014.
Geoffrey Joseph Sleba, 44, pleaded not guilty in the Warwick District Court on Monday, 17 October, to dangerous operation of a vehicle, causing death and leaving the scene of an accident.
The Crown case alleges that former Tamworth veterinarian Dr Martin Pearson was killed after being struck by a truck being driven by Sleba while competing in a road cycling event on the Inglewood-Millmerrran Road around 3.15pm on the day in question.
The Crown further alleges that Sleba kept driving after the collision while Dr Pearson lay on the side of the road with fatal injuries.
The jury for the trial was sworn in shortly before 11am on Monday but was directed to leave the courtroom for more than an hour while the Crown Prosecutor and Sleba’s defence counsel Peter Davis QC argued a series of points regarding evidence before Her Honour Judge Deborah Richards.
The trial was then adjourned early on Monday afternoon and resumed on Tuesday.
The Crown has a list of nearly 40 witnesses to call to the stand, including more than a dozen police officers.
Dr Pearson’s wife Sandy Vigar and a number of supporters have been in the public gallery at the Warwick Courthouse for the trial this week, along with supporters of Sleba.
The court has so far heard evidence from Ms Vigar and from witnesses who discovered Dr Pearson’s body and mangled bicycle on the roadside, and other witnesses who were travelling on the road at the time of the accident.
The trial before Judge Richards is expected to continue into next week.
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