A boy has told a court a police officer “using fear tactics” followed him onto a cycle path in her squad car and knocked him off his bike.
Prosecutors claim PC Kayleigh Simpson collided with the then-15-year-old on the cycle path near Auchmuty High School in Glenrothes and injured him.
Simpson, 33, denies the dangerous driving charge and is on trial at Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court.
The boy, now 17 and thus still cannot be named for legal reasons, said he had been cycling home from the town’s Rimbleton area at around 7pm on March 15 2020.
He told the court he had been out with friends and was returning home.
‘Chase’ begins at crossing
He detailed his route from Rimbleton towards Warout and how he stopped at a zebra crossing for a police car on the way.
“I can’t remember what point they started chasing me,” he said.
“The next thing I remember, I was crossing opposite the bus station.
“A police car was chasing. It sounded close.
“It didn’t seem like calm driving, it sounded aggressive. It made me cycle away.
“It gave me a fright so I started going faster.
“I was more worried about what was going on.
“It wasn’t normal driving. It was terrifying.
“I swear I could hear it revving.
“It felt like a long time but I know it was a short time.”
He said was too scared to stop and began cycling faster than usual.
‘They just rammed me’
The boy said he pulled onto a cycle and footpath beside Auchmuty High School, along which he had pedalled “many, many times” without ever seeing a car on it.
“As I was cycling down the path, I was trying to cycle as fast as I could.
“I could hear them revving.
“Eventually they just rammed me and I went flying.
“I don’t remember falling.
“I remember getting up and feeling like a deer in the headlights.
“I stood up instantly and limped.
“My knees were very badly cut and my side had road rash.
“I felt all the pain at once.”
Questioned on police statement
He continued: “She told me to take down my snood.
“It was like she muttered something like ‘it’s not him’ or something like that.”
The boy said he had not felt it safe to stop and the squad car made contact with his back tyre after using “fear tactics.”
Cross-examining, Simpson’s solicitor asked the boy why, in a statement given two days later, he said his bike was only “nudged.”
He put it down to his age at the time.
The boy said he did not recall being asked why he kept cycling, despite being signalled to stop, if he had been smoking cannabis or if he was afraid of getting into trouble.
“None of them happened,” he said.
Trial adjourned
The boy explained he was wearing a snood, beige-red jacket and hat – rather than a helmet – with his hood up and grey joggers.
He described his bike as being without lights but having reflectors on the spokes
Simpson denies a charge that, at a cycle path adjacent to Auchmuty High School, south of Dovecot Road, she drove a marked white Peugeot dangerously as she followed a 15-year-old boy and collided with him, injuring him and damaging his bike.
The trial, before Sheriff Alison McKay, was adjourned until August 24.
