Drink and drug-fuelled driver 'caused girlfriend's death', court told

A speeding white Ford Fiesta, being driven by Kevin Marsh, crashed into the refuse wagon at around 7am on Wednesday, July 5, last year at the junction of Broad Oak Road and Delta Road in Parr.

Michelle Atherton, 47, had been the passenger in the car and suffered serious injuries to her head and chest and died later in hospital.

Marsh, 43, pleaded guilty to causing death by careless driving while under the influence of drink or drugs on the second day of his trial at Liverpool Crown Court last Wednesday (January 3).

However, Marsh, of Gaskell Street, Parr, denies causing her death by dangerous driving.

The trial has heard Marsh claims Ms Atherton had been drinking and taking drugs at their Gaskell Street home and had threatened him and his teenage daughter with a hammer, and forced him to drive to the address of his ex-partner Gemma Bainbridge that morning.

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The prosecution claims Marsh caused Ms Atherton’s death in the head-on collision by his dangerous driving, while his defence claims Ms Atherton reached across to grab the steering wheel, causing the car to veer into the wrong lane and collide into the bin wagon.

The closing statements of both the prosecution and defence were presented to the jury on Tuesday afternoon, January 9.

The trial started at Liverpool Crown Court last Tuesday

Arthur Gibson, prosecuting, said that “the defendant has accepted that he contributed” to Ms Atherton’s death “by his plea (to causing death by careless driving)".

Mr Gibson added: “It’s difficult to think of something more dangerous than crossing over to the wrong side of the road into the path of an oncoming lorry.”

Mr Gibson remarked how Marsh says “everything that happened” was “due to the actions” of Ms Atherton.

He said how Marsh says “she was the one who forced him to drive to (his ex-girlfriend’s) and by threatening him and his daughter with a hammer, she was the one that smashed a window on Gemma Bainbridge’s front door".

He continued: “She was the one who was paranoid in the Fiesta that another car was following her” and “forced him to drive in excess of 50 mph despite the speed limit being only 30 mph, and finally by grabbing the steering wheel and turning it and caused the car to crash into the bin lorry”.

Mr Gibson asked the jury to consider “was Kevin Marsh scared, coerced or controlled that night? And said said “it was he (Marsh) who had contacted both his ex-wife and ex-girlfriend wanting money”.

He said how Marsh had claimed Ms Atherton had “failed to take her medication” and had sold it for £100 the previous evening. Mr Gibson said that toxicological evidence showed “she had taken her anti-psychotic medication.”

It was said it was claimed “she had been drinking according to the defendant” and had “two bottles of wine and a two-litre bottle of cider but comparing her blood alcohol levels to those of the defendant, hers was almost half his (Marsh’s).”

Mr Gibson added that it is “strange” that Marsh’s daughter “seems not to tell her mother” about the alleged incident of Marsh and Ms Atherton being in her bedroom as she threatened him with a hammer. He said: “The reality is it is not strange because it never happened.”

Mr Gibson said “in relation to the crash itself when you analyse it carefully, coldly and dispassionately” it “shows that Kevin Marsh has given you a pack of lies”.

He says how Marsh took a “longer” route in the car if he was driving back to Gaskell Street from his ex-girlfriend’s, and suggests “perhaps he was going somewhere else”.

“He says it is because Michelle told him ‘we’re being followed’” but said on the CCTV “there was no following car”.

Mr Gibson noted how one witness of the Fiesta being driven thought “why would you drive like that in this rain?” and another “he’s in a rush” travelling “at that speed”.

He said: “Could a car driven by someone almost twice the limit and under the influence of drugs […] have negotiated that bend?

“The movement of the Fiesta from the correct side of the road to the other side of the road didn’t happen because of a loss of control, it happened because the car was steered off to the alternative carriageway and into the path of the refuse truck.

“The defendant accepts that at the very least he contributed to that movement”.

Mr Gibson said how after the crash, Marsh tried to get away from the scene and said to a nearby resident “call me a taxi, I’ve just been out in town” and been “jumped on” and denied that the car involved in the crash was his.

Mr Gibson disputed Marsh’s claims he was “concussed” and “knew exactly what had happened”.

He said when Marsh saw “police officers started to arrive (at the crash scene) rather than wait for the taxi he continued to walk away”.

Police at the scene after the crash

Mr Gibson said Marsh claimed that before the crash Ms Atherton “reached across him and grabbed hold of the steering wheel at about the four o’clock position” and turned it to the “seven o’clock position".

“Why did she do that?” asked Mr Gibson. He said that, in a prepared statement to police five days later on July 13, “(Marsh) doesn’t say that she grabbed the steering wheel, he says she tried to grab the steering wheel”.

Mr Gibson said Marsh was “driving too fast, he was drunk, he was drugged up and drove too close to the centre of the road”.

He suggested Ms Atherton “perhaps frightened that they were so close to the lane […] grabbed that wheel but not to turn it to the right but to turn it to the left to pull it away” and that Marsh “reacted as everybody reacts when somebody does an involuntary movement towards them, he moves it the other way and turned it to the right”.

Mr Gibson said: “When you analyse the evidence carefully, you can reject his (Marsh’s) account that Michelle Atherton grabbed the steering wheel and turned it and caused the car to cross the road.

“It was the hands of Kevin Marsh that turned the steering wheel to the right and the hands of Kevin Marsh that caused that head-on collision and the death of Michelle Atherton.”

Michelle Atherton

Defending Marsh, Steven Ball, in his closing address to the jury said the crash “was not a case of a vehicle being driven running the lights on the way” avoiding “the police”.

Mr Ball said to the jury: “I am sure that Kevin Marsh might have given you ample reason to dislike him but, and it is a big but, the only reason for finding him guilty is not by disliking him but by being sure that he caused the death of Michelle Atherton by his dangerous driving.”

He told the jury “it’s important you don’t allow your feelings to cloud your judgement and stay objective. Sometimes we […] look at things in a black and white way but in a case like this there are many shades of grey”.

Mr Ball added Marsh has “taken responsibility for the death of Michelle Atherton by his pleading guilty to causing her death by his careless driving”.

He said the difference between the standard of careless and dangerous driving in this case “is the intervention of Michelle Atherton”. He said “I know Michelle Atherton has been described in a way that would lead you to consider she is emotionally unstable” with a “personality disorder” and had “a cocktail of alcohol, cocaine and medication in her system”.

He said she had been in an “elevated state of arousal which led her to act impulsively and unpredictably” and had gone to Gemma Bainbridge’s house to “put her window in”. Mr Ball said there was a “dysfunctional background to this case” which “can’t be said to be far-fetched”.

He added: “How can the prosecution be so sure it was the defendant who turned the wheel?”

He said the car was “slowing down” before the crash and the breaks engaged for 3.8 seconds.

Mr Ball said Marsh “accepted he was driving” during interview with the police and his “denials at the scene might not help you to determine whether he was responsible for turning the car into the other lane.”

He added: “Has the prosecution made you sure that Michelle Atherton didn’t grab the steering wheel and that was a factor in the vehicle changing lanes?

“If the prosecution can’t determine who was responsible for this human error how can they ask you to be sure of the defendant’s guilt?”

The trial will resume on Wednesday morning when judge David Aubrey KC will summarise the case to the four men and eight women of the jury before they are sent to begin their deliberations.