A NORTH ANTRIM woman who admitted causing the death of former rugby international, DUP councillor and convicted paedophile David Tweed, was handed a suspended prison sentence today. 

Sentencing Anne Broughton (71) at Antrim Crown Court, Judge Philip Gilpin told her if she had not admitted her guilt, he would have imposed and ordered her to serve a 10-month jail sentence.

He added however, given her guilty plea and completely clear record, he was reducing her sentence to eight months which after “some careful consideration,” he would suspend for a year.

In addition to the suspended jail sentence, Broughton was also banned from driving for a year but the pensioner will not have to resit her test to get back on the road.

Earlier this year, Broughton, from the Whitepark Road in Ballycastle, entered a guilty plea to causing the death of David Tweed by driving carelessly on the Whitepark Road, on 28 October 2021.

Opening the facts of the case, prosecuting KC Ciaran Murphy told the court that essentially, the offence arose after Broughton failed to see Tweed’s motorbike coming up behind her as she performed an overtaking manoeuvre.

A witness reported to police that as he traversed a “bendy” portion of the road, he saw the defendant’s Ford Fiesta coming up behind him.

Despite her car being behind him, Murphy said the witness was also able to see the motorcycle behind the Fiesta.

As the vehicles emerged onto a straight portion of the road, Broughton began an overtaking manoeuvre but as she did so, she failed to see Tweed’s motorcycle.

The 61-year-old crashed through a fence and dropped into a field and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Murphy said that during the ensuing police investigation, the witness told police he had been able to see the motorbike but after the Fiesta pulled to overtake him, he had not seen it again.

Broughton told investigators that having driven for more than 50 years, “it was more than likely on the balance of probability” that she looked in her mirror but she conceded that having done so, she had not seen the motorcycle.

She also conceded that she had not looked over her shoulder before beginning the overtaking manoeuvre.

Murphy told the court that having “felt a bump,” the pensioner thought she had clipped a post so she went back to check.

As she did so, the defendant saw the fatally injured victim lying in the field and the senior barrister said a post mortem report established that he had died as a result of the injuries consistent with the collision.

An expert forensic engineer conducted examinations and he opined it was likely that Broughton’s Fiesta had pulled out into the oncoming lane when Tweed’s motorcycle was just past her rear off side corner.

Murphy told Judge Gilpin there were no other contributing factors to the accident, in that the vehicles involved were all in good condition, there was no driver impairment such as alcohol or drugs and other than the offence itself, there were no aggravating features.

Tweed’s death a rose, he told the judge, because Broughton “attempted an overtaking manoeuvre without properly checking behind her and failing to see the motorcycle coming from her right hand side.”

“She failed to take proper steps to make sure that the road was clear,” he told the judge.

Defence KC Kieran Mallon confirmed that “the core of the prosecution case is accepted by the defendant,” submitting that “it was a momentary lapse in her part.”

He highlighted however, that before she retired, Broughton’s job had involved a significant amount of driving but despite having had a licence for more than 50 years, she had a completely clear record.

In his sentencing remarks, Judge Gilpin said he was satisfied that the “gravamen of the prosecution case… is that the defendant failed to properly perform checks that she should have done.

“If she had done those, she would have detected the presence of Mr Tweed,” the judge told the court.

Turning to the Victim Impact Statements from the victim’s sister, who was sitting in the public gallery along with other siblings, Judge Gilpin said she reported how Tweed “took his responsibilities as a big brother very seriously.”

“As a family they feel, in her words, robbed by his passing,” the judge told the court, adding that for them, “they miss his big personality and as she put it, there will always be an empty chair.”

Imposing the suspended jail sentence and 12 month driving ban, Judge Gilpin concluded the hearing said it “only remains for this court to pass on may condolences to the wider family of the Tweed family for their loss.”

A former international rugby player who was capped four times for Ireland, Tweed served on Ballymena council for the DUP and later the TUV.

As a former member of the Orange Order in Dunloy, he was involved in the Harryville dispute when loyalists picketed a Catholic church in Ballymena.

He left the DUP in 2007 over the party’s decision to share power with Sinn Féin and later, joined Jim Allister’s Traditional Unionist Voice.

In 2012, a Crown Court jury found him guilty of 13 counts of indecent assault, gross indecency with a child and inciting gross indecency with a child and he was handed an eight-year jail sentence for those crimes.

He appealed however and having served four years behind bars, the Court of Appeal quashed Tweed’s convictions, citing the prejudicial nature of the trial judge’s charge to the jury.