By Jeremy Sollars
BREAKING, 3.30PM: A truck driver has been convicted by a Warwick jury of causing the hit and run death of a cyclist west of Warwick on Anzac Day 2014.
Geoffrey Joseph Sleba faced trial in the Warwick District Court over the past fortnight.
He was alleged by the Crown to have caused the death of former Tamworth veterinarian Dr Martin Pearson in a collision on the Inglewood-Millmerran Road on the day in question.
The Crown alleged that Sleba’s truck fatally struck Dr Pearson around 3.15pm on the day – while Dr Pearson was heading north taking part in a long-distance cycling event – and that Sleba failed to stop at the scene.
Sleba pleaded not guilty.
The jury in the case deliberated for around three hours today, Friday 9 February, before returning its verdict.
The trial originally commenced in October 2016 but was put on hold as a result of legal argument on the first day.
A date for Sleba’s sentencing is yet to be set and he is in custody.
