Reverend ‘swore at teenager he knocked down in car’, court hears
A REVEREND who knocked down and injured a teenager swore when he was asked to call an ambulance, a court has heard.
Reverend Christopher Cheeseman leaving court
Christopher Cheeseman, 67, allegedly became aggressive after accidentally driving into pedestrian Dillon Hodgson, 18.
The teenager, still wearing his football kit after a game, was flipped on to the bonnet of Cheeseman’s Ford Ka and left “covered in blood”, magistrates were told.
Cheeseman cut across a junction on the wrong side of the road and hit the teenager as he stepped off an island crossing, it was alleged.
Mr Hodgson told the court: “I was covered in blood. I was wet through. I was all shaken up and was panicking.
I was covered in blood. I was wet through. I was all shaken up and was panicking.
I said ‘You just hit me, did you not see me?’ He was quite loud and aggressive.”
He claimed that when he asked for an ambulance, the minister shouted: “It’s your own ******* fault for being in the road. It’s your own fault. **** off.”
The row took place in Burnley, Lancs, on January 7.
Cheeseman, a Methodist minister for 35 years who looks after two churches, denied being abusive.
Asked if he had sworn, he replied: “I certainly did not.”
He admitted careless driving, was fined £135 and ordered to pay £150 compensation and £105 costs by magistrates.
He was also given three points on his licence on Wednesday.
He was cleared of failing to stop and report an accident and not complying with a traffic sign.
A reference from the Superintendent Minister of Burnley Methodist Circuit, Rev Philip Clarke, said no one had known Cheeseman to use bad language.
He said: “I know him to be an exceptionally caring and well-balanced person.”
Mr Hodgson is now suing the minister through the civil courts.