Delivery driver run over and dragged more than 700 metres before dying from injuries court hears
A man who is accused of running over a 54-year-old delivery driver and then dragging him 700 meters along a road has appeared before Cardiff Crown Court.
Mark Lang, 54, died in hospital 18 days after being struck by a van. Christopher El Gifari, 31, is accused of Mr Lang’s murder.
The jury at Cardiff Crown Court heard that Mr Lang was making a delivery at Laytonia Avenue in Cardiff on 28 March last year when he suffered the fatal injuries.
CCTV shown in court shows El Gifari jumping into the driver’s seat of the delivery van while Mr Lang was delivering an item.
The van is then seen driving up Laytonia Avenue while Mr Lang, who is seen wearing a yellow high-vis jacket, runs after it. Witnesses reported how the van turned round at the top of the road - which is a dead end - before driving back in the direction from which he had came.
The CCTV shows Mr Lang standing in the middle of the street before he is struck by the van.
Further pictures show his high-vis jacket clearly visible under the vehicle as it is driven onto North Road, where it reached speeds of 47 mph, before coming to a halt at the junction of New Zealand Road.
There, the defendant can be seen leaving the van and running off in the direction of Whitchurch Road.
The court was told that passers-by phoned the emergency services, who were able to free Mr Lang from the van and restart his heart.
He was rushed to University Hospital Wales where he died 18 days later from his injuries, having never regained consciousness.
A pathologist found that he’d died as a combination of “brain injury, traumatic cardiac arrest and blunt force injury.”
Mr Lang had also suffered extensive skin injuries as a result of being dragged along under the front of the van, which had a clearance of just 160mm between the bumper and the road surface.
The jury were also shown still images of the van bonnet which, the prosecution say, show damage caused by the impact.
Christopher El Gifari was arrested the day after the incident. In a later police interview, the court heard, he replied “no comment” to questions.
In a pre-prepared statement, he told officers he hadn’t meant to hit Mr Lang and didn’t know he was there.
Opening the case for the prosecution, David Elias KC said these were “obvious lies, intended to deflect” from what the defendant has done. Mr Elias said the defendant admitted theft and accepted unlawfully killing Mr Lang by driving the van at him to frighten him.
But Mr Elias said that “the prosecution say, on the evidence you will see, Mr El Gifari had a chance to slow down. He chose to run Mr Lang over.
“We say he must have intended to cause at least some serious harm to Mr Lang, and he is guilty of Mr Lang’s murder.”
Addressing the jury, Mark Graffius KC reminded them of the judge’s instructions to “keep an open mind” until they’d heard all the evidence in the case.
Christopher El Gifari is accused of murder, an alternative charge of manslaughter, and robbery. He denies murder and robbery and the case continues.
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