Headteacher dragged under car for over a mile in Manchester murder trial

Michael Mullins, 56, was struck by a Volvo XC90 while cycling home from Stretford Grammar School and trapped beneath the vehicle for more than 2km. Simon Richardson, 35, denies murder.

Manchester headteacher killed after being trapped under fleeing driver's car, court told

A headteacher was struck by a car, dragged beneath it for more than a mile and a third, and left to die on the roadside, a murder trial at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court has heard, The Sun reports.

Michael Mullins, 56, was cycling home from Stretford Grammar School on the evening of 20 April when he was hit by a Volvo XC90 at a junction in Altrincham, Greater Manchester. The defendant, Simon Richardson, 35, is alleged to have driven straight through give-way markers before colliding with the cyclist.

Eyewitnesses stopped — the driver did not

Opening the case for the prosecution, Phil Barnes KC told jurors that multiple eyewitnesses saw the collision unfold and immediately pulled over to help. "They did what any decent person, any of us, would have done having just seen a collision," Barnes said. "They stopped their cars, they got out to see if everybody was OK. They called the emergency services."

Richardson, the court was told, did none of that. "Simon Richardson knowing he was to blame for what had just happened, turned his head, put his foot down and — at times travelling at double the speed limit — he fled the scene," Barnes told the jury.

Those who stopped found the bicycle lying in the road but could not locate the cyclist. "Michael Mullins was nowhere to be seen," Barnes said. "Why? Because he was trapped beneath Simon Richardson's car."

Damage captured on camera

ANPR footage taken as Richardson drove away from the collision recorded visible damage to both the bonnet and the windscreen of his Volvo — damage, Barnes told the jury, that had not been present before the incident. "That damage was caused by Michael Mullins being thrown up on to the bonnet of the Volvo when the defendant hit him," Barnes said. "Putting it bluntly, there is no way on earth that Simon Richardson could not have known that he had just hit Michael Mullins and that he was very likely to be hurt."

The prosecution's case is that Richardson was aware, for a significant portion of the journey, that Mullins was alive but trapped and injured beneath his vehicle, and that he drove on regardless.

Attempt to pull victim free — then drove on

At some point during the journey, Richardson is said to have stopped his car on a quiet country lane, got out and attempted to pull Mullins from underneath. The effort failed. Richardson then returned to the driver's seat and continued, with witnesses reporting that the car was seen "veering sharply and deliberately from side to side" before mounting a grass verge.

Barnes told jurors it was the Crown's position that Richardson then drove over Mullins at least once before the cyclist was finally dislodged. "Michael Mullins was crushed to death beneath the wheels of this defendant's car," Barnes said, "and his death was made quicker by the fact that he had been dragged against the surface of the road by Simon Richardson for more than 2km."

Trail of blood led witnesses to the victim

Several people who had witnessed the initial collision followed what Barnes described as "a trail of blood" and eventually found Mullins lying on a grass verge. The first to reach him found him still breathing but barely alive. "His breath would give out within the next few moments of that man arriving to help him," Barnes told the court.

Emergency services attended, but Mullins — who lived in Northwich, Cheshire — was pronounced dead at the roadside at 6.50pm, approximately 40 minutes after the collision and more than a mile and a third from where it had occurred.

Arrest the following day

Richardson was arrested the day after the incident. He is alleged to have been driving dangerously at speed through residential streets in Failsworth, Oldham, in a van while being pursued by police at the time of his arrest.

In addition to the murder charge, Richardson has pleaded not guilty to an alternative count of manslaughter and to a separate allegation of dangerous driving. The trial continues.

Source: The Sun