Van driver accused of deliberately mowing down teacher in alleged road rage attack, jury hears

A 33-year-old van driver deliberately drove at and killed a 50-year-old teacher after a road rage confrontation, a jury at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court was told on Tuesday.

Prosecutors say Andrew Robson swerved his white van into Paul Bowles after the pair exchanged words and fought near a roundabout on Broadway in Oldham, Greater Manchester, on March 26. Mr Bowles was knocked to the ground and later died of head injuries.

Opening the Crown’s case, Gordon Cole KC told jurors that Mr Bowles was driving home at about 6:30 p.m. in a grey Nissan Qashqai with his 19-year-old daughter as a passenger when Robson’s van was driving "very close" to the car. The pair argued as their vehicles reached the roundabout, Mr Cole said, and both men exited their vehicles and engaged in a fight.

According to the prosecutor, the fight stopped and Mr Bowles was still outside his car when Robson returned to his van and deliberately swerved towards him. The jury heard that Mr Bowles was "carried some distance," possibly while clinging to the vehicle’s front, before he fell to the road where he was treated but could not be saved.

Robson, who runs a fencing business and is from Chadderton, has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and, alternatively, manslaughter. The defendant later handed himself in to police but answered "no comment" to all questions, the court heard.

Mr Cole told jurors that the prosecution will argue there was "ample opportunity" for Robson to see Mr Bowles in the road and that swerving the van was a deliberate act indicating intent. The Crown indicated it expects Robson’s defence to contend that he did not deliberately drive at Mr Bowles, did not intend to kill or cause serious harm, and may have been unaware he had collided with him.

The van allegedly used in the incident has not been recovered. The prosecution told the court it is likely the defendant made arrangements to dispose of the vehicle after the incident, though those assertions were presented as the Crown’s case rather than settled fact.

Mr Bowles, a former actor and drama teacher, worked as a learning support assistant at St Anne’s C of E Lydgate Primary School in Saddleworth. His employer and former colleagues have not been reported as making court statements in the opening of the trial. The case is expected to last about 10 days.

The jury will hear evidence from witnesses who were at the scene and from forensic and medical experts about the nature of Mr Bowles’s injuries. The trial proceedings will determine whether the Crown can prove beyond reasonable doubt that Robson’s actions were deliberate and constituted murder, or whether a lesser verdict is appropriate.