Tractor man’s erratic driving after suspicions over wife

One of the biggest challenges facing a press photographer covering a court case is identification. You need to get the defendant leaving court and it needs to be the right person pictured as the defendant – because if you mess that up there are all sorts of legal implications.

The type of shot is known in the trade as a snatch, or snatched, picture and you see them in the papers every day. It used to be, when there were a lot more staff photographers, that you would spend the day in the court and get the chance to see them in the dock and jot down a description. On one occasion they tried to fool me by swapping clothes.

However, in these times of cutbacks, these days the photographers do not have the luxury of time and rely on the reporter providing a description when the defendant is about to leave. And that job is so much easier when you can say he looks like our now Prime Minister – he even had a middle name in the style of Johnson. The mention of the Keystone Cops was a headline writer’s dream as well.

A COCKERMOUTH man admitted careless driving – in his tractor – after erratically veering across the road in a “scene from the Keystone Cops”.

Carlisle Magistrates’ Court heard how Mark William Peregrine James suspected his wife was having an affair and so, when he spotted her car parked in Strawberry Howe Road in Cockermouth, he parked his tractor beside it and got out to confront her.

When he saw she was in the process of sending a text message, he snatched her mobile phone from her hands and raced back to his John Deere 2140 tractor.

The court heard the 49-year-old, from Main Street in Great Broughton, wanted to read her messages to confirm his suspicions that she was having an affair, but his wife followed him and tried to get her phone back.

James started his engine but his wife joined him in the cab and continued lunging at him as he drove off.

The prosecution told the court that the tractor – which has a top speed of 15mph – veered erratically onto the wrong side of the road, as James attempted to fend off his wife and keep hold of the phone, while driving.

The incident, which left onlookers concerned for the safety of other road users, happened in July.

James, a farmer and part time trucker, appeared in court accused of dangerous driving – which he denied – but a trial was halted after he pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention.

Witness Fiona Jayatilaka told the court she had been driving along Strawberry Howe Road at the time of the incident.

She said: “It was a green tractor – it was being driven very erratically. It was a bit like the Keystone Cops.”

Miss Jayatilaka said she saw the couple arguing and added that the woman was “thrashing about trying to stop him driving”.

She continued: “It was at that point on the wrong side of the road. It meandered about – it was going extremely slowly, weaving around.”

Sharon Relph said she had picked up her grandson from a day centre in Strawberry Howe Road when she saw the tractor.

She said she was initially concerned for the woman’s safety and asked her daughter-in-law to contact the police.

Officers asked her to follow the tractor and keep them updated but when James noticed her she said he put his vehicle into reverse.

She added: “It looked as if he was going to reverse back. I was panicking at the time – I didn’t know whether he was drunk or what was happening, so I reversed down the road.”

Andrew Woolfall, in mitigation, said the couple had been married for 18 years, with two grown-up children and, earlier that week, James had suspected that his wife was having an affair.

He added: “He tried to get himself away from people but, in retrospect, he accepts he should have stopped.”

James was fined £600, a total of £145 in court costs and had his licence endorsed with eight penalty points.

From the Carlisle News & Star west Cumbrian edition on Friday , October 10, 2014.