Owner shunts Mercedes through Warren Marston's front door

Marston woken by car shunted into front door

By Graham Green racingpost.com

FORMER jump jockey Warren Marston had a rude awakening when racehorse owner Sheila Lockhart shunted his Mercedes through the front door of his Cotswolds home, Gloucester Crown Court heard this week.

Lockhart, 63, whose Go Ballistic finished second to See More Business in the 1999 Cheltenham Gold Cup, was alleged to have gone ballistic herself in the late night incident on October 17 last year.

Simon Emslie, prosecuting, claimed Lockhart had been angry with Marston for breaking a confidence over a trainer who being investigated by the BHA and alleged she had been drinking before driving to his home at Condicote to confront him.

When receiving no answer, she rammed her Audi A6 into his parked Mercedes, pushing it through the front door, said the prosecutor.

The court heard Marston, 40, who retired in April and did not give evidence in the case, was woken by the smashing glass and leapt from his bed naked to look down the stairs and see his car bonnet protruding into the hall, with Lockhart standing at the door.

Lockhart hastily left the scene and drove home before contacting the police. Officers found a half empty bottle of Prosecco in her kitchen and when breathalysed, she gave a reading of 46 micrograms - 11 over the limit - the court was told.

Lockhart was appealing against her conviction in July fordriving with excess alcohol on her breath, insisting she was sober when she drove to Marston's home. She said she had a drink, and some alcoholic 'Swiss tonic', to calm her nerves only after returning home.

Lockhart denied being angry when she went to the house or that she had anything to drink when earlier visiting the Plough pub in Ford looking for Marston.

After ringing the doorbell and tapping on the windows failed to elicit a response, she said: "I then remember banging his car and kicking the bonnet, thumping it, in the hope I would set off the alarm andwake him."

When that did not work, she realised what she was doing was wrong and she should go home, but accidentally put her automatic car into drive instead of reverse, she told the court.

"I went into drive and walloped his car," she said. "I could easily just have driven away because there was no sign of anybody, but I wouldn't dream of doing that. I climbed over the damaged door frame and broke the glass. Mr Marston was naked at the top of the stairs and as a matter of decency I turned my head from him.

"He had some very fruity words to call me - quite rightly - and told me in no uncertain terms to get the hell out of it."

Upholding her appeal, Judge William Hart, who was sitting with two JPs, said: "We find that had she been driving when drunk the last thing she would have done would be to invite the police around to see the evidence of just that."

The judge said the only issue the court had to decide was whether Lockhart was over the limit at the time she drove. It accepted her evidence she was not.