By Brian Smith

FORMER MOTORCYCLE racer Alan Duffus (62) denied speed still exhilarated him when he gave evidence at the High Court in Dundee yesterday.

The owner of a Kirkcaldy motorcycle dealership is charged, along with another man, of racing and causing an accident that resulted in the death of 67-year-old Auchtermuchty woman Senga Elder.

Mr Duffus, entering the witness box on the fourth day of the trial, told jurors he had been aware of a small grey car behind him.

When he saw the driver “pushing it,” in his rear view mirror, he made a conscious decision to ignore the other car.

Grant Andrew Whyte (22), North Park, Auchtermuchty, and Alan Watson Duffus (62), Main Street, Kinnesswood, deny that on January 24 last year, over three miles of the Falkland to Auchtermuchty road, from the outskirts of Dunshalt village to Station Road, Auchtermuchty, they caused the death of Mrs Elder, from Auchtermuchty, by driving cars dangerously, racing, driving at excessive speeds, driving too close to each other, repeatedly crossing over the centre line and causing a woman driver to brake and swerve to avoid a collision with the car being driven by Alan Duffus.

The charge alleges that Alan Duffus braked suddenly while the car driven by Grant Whyte was behind and not maintaining a safe distance and Grant Whyte braked suddenly and lost control of the vehicle, mounting the pavement and striking Mrs Elder whereby she was fatally injured.

Alan Duffus is further charged with failing to stop after the fatal accident and give his name and address and details of the vehicle.

Asked by defence counsel Peter Gray QC to describe his journey from Falkland to Auchtermuchty, Mr Duffus said there was a long straight between Falkland and Dunshalt and he thought his speed along that stretch would have been at the speed limit of 60mph—“perhaps more but only by a few mph, if it was, it was accidentally.”

At temporary traffic lights in the village of Dunshalt he became aware of the small grey car drawing up behind him.

When the lights turned green and they were out of the village he remembered looking behind after a right hand bend.

“As I said to police he was using a fair bit of road. I got the impression it was trying quite hard.

“It looked like he was catching up and I decided to ignore it and carry on driving in my own time.”

Mr Gray asked, “Having looked in the mirror and seen the small grey car was that the last you saw of it?” Mr Duffus, “It was the last I saw of it.”

He estimated the time from that sighting to the point where he reached Auchtermuchty was about 30 seconds.

Mr Gray, “Were you aware at any time that day that anything untoward had happened to the small grey car?” Mr Duffus, “Absolutely not.”

He described carrying on his journey to the Lindores area where he had lunch and left some time before 2pm. He began to retrace his journey but was diverted by police in Auchtermuchty, he said.

Police stopped him as he took an alternative route via Gateside.

Both then and in subsequent voluntary statements he gave, he said police would only tell him that there had been a serious incident and that they required his mobile telephone and car, to eliminate it from their inquiries.

He said he had given police a document relating to repairs to the rear of his BMW Z4 because he did not want them to think any damage was recent.

He said that some time before, he had been stopped in traffic on the dual carriageway and a van had run into the back of the car—not hard but causing damage.

Mr Gray asked, “Did you race with anyone at any time during that day?” Mr Duffus again replied, “Absolutely not.”

Beginning his cross-examination advocate depute Keith Stewart asked the accused about his motorcycle racing career.

The witness replied, “That was over 30 years ago.”

He accepted he had won awards in every category of motorcycle racing up to 1000cc superbikes and confirmed that the first bend at the Knockhill Circuit was known as the Duffus Dip in his honour.

Mr Stewart asked, “Do you miss racing?” The accused replied, “No, I have done it since the 1960s. I thought it’s time I was gone, and retired in 1979.”

Mr Stewart suggested that as a skilled and experienced driver the accused must have looked in his rear view mirror more than once during the journey between Dunshalt and Auchtermuchty.

He also suggested the accused must have looked in his mirror before braking for the 30mph limit at the start of Auchtermuchty.

Mr Duffus said he had made his decision to ignore the car behind and stuck to it.

Mr Stewart said that the car behind had spun round, smashing into an elderly woman and killing her and at that point the accused had made, “a conscious decision to drive away.” Mr Duffus replied, “That is not true. I didn’t know about the accident, I carried on.”

In his closing speech, the advocate depute asked jurors to accept that the two accused had been racing each other.

He said that the consequences of racing on public roads had been brought home to everybody in court. “It is grossly irresponsible, it is criminal,” he added.

Mr Stewart also asked jurors to hold that it was “inconceivable” that Alan Duffus could have been unaware of what was unfolding behind him.

Defence counsel Andrew Lamb QC asked the jury to consider carefully “the racing element” in the charge, and weigh it against the discrepancies in the descriptions by Crown witnesses of the driving they saw.

He said Grant Whyte had “frankly accepted” from the outset that “he is responsible for the death of the unfortunate lady involved in the accident. He has been adamant he was not involved in racing.”

Counsel said the accused had taken his eye off the road for a second, found himself too close to the car in front and lost control.

Mr Gray told the jury, “The heart of the matter of the Crown case against Alan Duffus is that he was racing.

“It is only if you are satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that Alan Duffus was engaged in a race with Grant Whyte that you could ever hold him to be criminally responsible for the actions of Grant Whyte in losing control.”

The Crown case, he said, relied on a number of witnesses who formed the impression they were engaged in a race and he argued such judgments of speed and distance were notoriously difficult.

“It is a case based on impressions and nothing else,” he said, concluding, “Criminal cases in Scotland are not determined by impressions.”

Lady Dorrian will give the jury directions in law today before they retire to consider their verdicts.