Charlie Alliston looked up to American stunt cyclist ‘alleycat’ Lucas Brunelle
CHARLIE Alliston modelled himself on an American daredevil stunt cyclist who screams through New York traffic at terrifying speeds.
Trailer for Line of Sight featuring footage from Lucas Brunelle
The cocky former courier wanted to copy the “alleycat” footage by Lucas Brunelle, 46, who films himself weaving in and out of traffic, narrowly avoiding crashes with traffic and pedestrians, before posting it online.
But Alliston, who became fixated with bikes growing up in Bermondsey, south London, with his single mother Karan, idolised him.
In February 2015, he tweeted: “The time when you first take your brakes off and feeling like you’re in a @lucasbrunelle movie.”
Charlie Alliston looked up to American stunt cyclist ‘alleycat’ Lucas Brunelle
The teen was cleared of manslaughter after the death of Kim Briggs
After school, Alliston began studying photography and business studies in sixth form, but dropped out, finding work instead as a courier for three different companies in central London.
His first fixed wheel bike was a Cinelli, but one month before the fatal accident he paid £470 for the secondhand Planet X model.
In court, Alliston looked the part of a rebellious “hipster” with drainpipe trousers and “flesh tunnel” ear piercing.
The court heard he used the web handle CharlieFxckingA to post sneering rants about tragic Kim Briggs.