A BMW driver accused of ramming a Peugeot at a red light in Cowley has been cleared of dangerous driving.
Luis Baptista, 33, was said by prosecutors to have ‘brake checked’ the occupants of the silver hatchback following behind him on Cowley Road on November 7, 2021, before ramming them twice during an argument at the traffic lights then speeding off.
The defendant accepted damaging the Peugeot’s front bumper, but claimed it was caused when he pushed his car past the vehicle after the passenger in the other car pulled a knife on him. The driver of the Peugeot flatly denied that his passenger had a knife when it was put to him in cross-examination.
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Closing her client’s case to the jury on Thursday, defence barrister Dana Bilan urged the panel of 12 to ‘use their common sense’.
She pointed to inconsistencies between the claim that the car was struck in two different places and photos that appeared to only show damage to the bumper and not the side panels.
Ms Bilan asked the jury whether or not they would, on the morning of the speeches, to have seen CCTV of the incident had it been available.
If they were to say yes, ‘that means you are not sure that [the Peugeot driver] is telling the truth about the two rammings’, she said.
READ MORE: Driver of 'rammed' car gives evidence to jury
“And if you are not sure and you believe it is possible that what Mr Baptista has told you is true then I invite you to find him not guilty.”
Baptista, of Balfour Road, Oxford, was found not guilty of dangerous driving.
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