Former point-to-point champion jailed

Horse breeder and one-time national point-to-point champion, Alistair Crow, appeals against 15-month sentence

Former point-to-point champion, Alistair Crow, has lodged an appeal against a 15-month jail sentence for the manslaughter of a 16-year-old farm worker.

Mr Crow, 32, who was national champion in 1993, was sentenced by Birmingham Crown Court last week following a trial in July.

His father, Edward Crow, who was found guilty of the same offence in July, walked free from court with a 12-month suspended jail sentence.

The farmworker, Lee Smith, was killed in November 1999 when the JCB farm vehicle he was driving was involved in a collision with a lorry on the A49in Shropshire.

The jury at the trial heard that Mr Smith, an agricultural student who was a trainee at the Crow’s farm in Hadnall, Shropshire, should not have been driving the vehicle because he had neither the experience nor the proper training.

Alistair Crow and his father were said to have been criminally negligent in failing in their duty of care towards Mr Smith.

They both denied unlawful killing.