The driver A man accused of killing a pensioner when she was stung with a wasp after her accident in a car was wrecked was cleared yesterday.
Helen Shaw, 40, has spoken of her immense relief after her charge was dropped – along with the prospect of up to five years in jail.
After a sting to her leg, Mrs Shaw had gone head-on in another car, injuring RosinaIngram (85), several days later.
The mother-of-three Mrs Shaw claimed that the accident wasn’t her fault, but she was charged with inconsiderate or careless driving and causing death.
Helen Shaw, a mother-of-three, was 40 years old and insists that the accident wasn’t her fault. However, prosecutors have charged her with inconsiderate or careless driving, causing death.
Her trial by jury was due to start at Teesside Crown Court on Monday but yesterday it emerged the Crown Prosecution Service had dropped the charge because there was ‘no realistic prospect of conviction’.
Mrs Shaw, a dog breeder and equestrian worker, described the past two years as ‘the worst time of my life’.
The woman claimed she showed police both a photograph of the incident and records from her hospital. This proved that she had received antihistamines as a countermeasure to its harmful effects.
But she said she was charged anyway and forced to borrow £8,000 from her father to pay her legal fees.
‘I really don’t know why the case had to go to court,’ Mrs Shaw said. ‘They had the evidence from the start, but my family and I have still been through all of this.
‘To find myself in a criminal court facing a potential jail sentence was surreal but very frightening.’
Shaw’s husband was a welder. She was driving her Seat Leon down the A67 to return home from Yarm on the morning of the accident.
She said: ‘I was aware of a pain at the back of my leg at the top of my calf and looked down to see a wasp crawling up my leg.
Her trial by jury was due to start at Teesside Crown Court on Monday but yesterday it emerged the Crown Prosecution Service had dropped the charge because there was ‘no realistic prospect of conviction’
‘When I looked up the other car was right in front of me. I hit the brakes but couldn’t stop. I broke my ankle but it was devastating to be told the lady in the other car had died.’
Mrs Shaw said she ‘cried for weeks’ after attending court for the first time last November.
She said it hadn’t sunk in that the matter was finally over. ‘I feel very relieved,’ she said, adding: ‘I can’t say how sorry I am for what happened, it’s something I’ll carry around with me for the rest of my life.’
A spokesman for the Crown Prosecution Service said ‘no evidence was uncovered by police’ to support Mrs Shaw’s sting claim so it was ‘appropriate’ to charge her.
‘Further evidence, subsequently obtained, was supportive of the defendant’s version of events,’ he added.
‘Following a further review of the case, we decided there was no longer a realistic prospect of conviction and took the appropriate decision to formally offer no evidence in the case.’