Dunfermline and West Fife MP Thomas Docherty says he is “satisfied” with the outcome of a court case where he was charged with colliding with a car.
The Labour politician was at Dunfermline’s Justice of the Peace Court on Monday to deny that on June 18 last year on Carnegie Drive, Dunfermline, he drove without due care and attention by failing to obey a red traffic light and collided with a car, causing damage.
Mr Docherty was found not guilty after trial and later told The Courier that he was “obviously satisfied” with the outcome. “The matter has now been dealt with by the due legal process,” he said.
The court heard Mr Docherty (35), of Eardley Crescent, Dunfermline, had his “head in his hands” following the collision which took place at the traffic lights between the East Port and Dunfermline Police Station.
Mrs Diane Clark (45), of Copper Beech Wynd, Cairneyhill, told depute fiscal Azrah Yousaf she had been shopping with her mother Margaret Petrie in Dunfermline town centre. She was going to drop her off at her home in Headwell Avenue, Dunfermline, at around 6.45pm and was about to drive up Townhill Road.
The Fife Council administrative assistant said she had been driving her blue Honda Jazz car from the East Port across the carriageway towards Dunfermline Police Station when a car hit her vehicle on the inside lane.
“I was turning right to go into the inside lane when a car hit me,” she said. “The car had hit my passenger side. It was a double impact.”
Mrs Clark said that she got out of her car and went to speak to Mr Docherty, who was driving a black Fiesta. She felt he had hit her car.
“I asked him (Mr Docherty) if he was all right but he didn’t say anything. He had his head in his hands,” she said.
“The lights were at green facing me as we drove from the East Port and I accelerated away. The first thing I knew about this was when Mr Docherty’s car hit me. The front passenger side and the side of my car were damaged my car was away for two weeks getting repaired.”
Ralph McCrann, solicitor for Mr Docherty, asked Mrs Clark if she had collided with his client.
Mrs Petrie (73) said she remembered her daughter driving over the carriageway from the traffic lights approaching Carnegie Drive from the East Port and the next thing the car had been hit.
“I remember saying, ‘How did that car get around to hit us?’,” she said. “I saw that it was a male driver in the other car. My daughter got out of the car and tried to speak to him and then she went into Dunfermline Police Station whilst I phoned my son.”
PC Ryan Ivatt told the court that he was on uniformed duty on the day in question when he heard a “collision” outside. “Thereafter we received a call on the police radio about the incident and I was asked to go out to see it,” he said. “There was damage to both cars.”
PC Ivatt told the court that the traffic lights near Sinclair Gardens were “slightly out of synchronisation” with the ones located before them.
“The lights nearest Sinclair Gardens go to green first and then the ones nearest the police station follow shortly after,” he said. “And if the lights at the East Port are at green then the ones in Carnegie Drive will be at red.”
Giving evidence, Mr Docherty said he had been driving home along Carnegie Drive when he heard the “beep” of a horn and then a “bang.”
“I was in the right-hand lane and decided to go down towards the train station so I was only in second gear, driving between 18-20mph,” he said. “I had gone through the first set of traffic lights when I heard a bang and my car was spun about 90 degrees and I ended up looking towards the East Port.
“Mrs Clark’s car hit mine in the middle of the vehicle on the driver’s side and the offside panel was damaged. It was pretty scary. Her car was pressed alongside mine and the only way I could get out was by using the passenger door.”
Justice of the peace George Watt said, “Having heard all the evidence there is clearly doubt as to what actually happened and I find Mr Docherty not guilty.”
Mr Docherty won the Dunfermline and West Fife seat by a majority of 5470 from Willie Rennie at the general election.