The appeal hearing regarding the leniency of the sentence imposed on Gary McCourt, 49, who killed a cyclist when he knocked her off a bike two years ago, has been moved.
Audrey Fyfe, 75 from Joppa, died in hospital, two days after the back wheel of her bike was struck by McCourt’s vehicle at the junction of Portobello Road and Craigentinny Avenue on August 9, 2011.
On 3 May 2013, McCourt was convicted of causing death by careless driving and sentenced to 300 hours of community service and banned from driving for five years.
Afterwards, it emerged that in 1985 he had been involved in a previous fatal crash when his vehicle struck and killed 22-year-old cyclist George Dalgity on Regent Road, for which he served two years in prison.
Following the case, the families of both victims joined forces to campaign for a tougher sentence.
After careful consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case, the Crown agreed and appealed that the sentence was “unduly lenient”.
The hearing of the sentence appeal in the case against McCourt will now take place at 10:00 on 13 August 2013 at the Appeal Court at Lawnmarket, Edinburgh.
John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.
