A DRIVER charged for failing to report an incident where a 19-year-old boy from Tilehurst died after a crash could face a more serious charge.

Sheldon Lewcock was riding an electric bike when he was involved in a collision in Pierces Hill on August 4 last year. He passed away five days later.

Ryan Willicombe, from Newbury, appeared at Reading Magistrates' Court today (June 14) charged with driving a vehicle involved in a road accident and failing to report that accident as well as one count of driving without third-party insurance.

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The 18-year-old has been charged with driving a Vauxhall Vivaro Van on August 4, 2022 on Pierce’s Hill when ‘an accident occurred whereby personal injury was caused to another person and damage was caused to another vehicle’.

He was due to enter a plea but the case has been adjourned for a second time as the Crown Prosecution Service are investigating whether he can be charged with a more serious count of causing death by dangerous driving.

However, the Crown are unable to put the charge to Willicombe today due to issues with CCTV that is needed to back-up the charge.

Prosecutor Aamir Barrett said: “There’s CCTV that needs to be reviewed by an expert. The device that received the CCTV footage is faulty.

“They are looking at other avenues to see if they can do it without it but nothing is concrete.”

The defence for Willicombe, Mason Waker, said the defence’s position is Willicombe should have entered a plea and stated the difficulties with the CCTV are ‘unclear’ and ‘confusing’.

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However, district judge Samuel Goozee granted the Crown an adjournment of 12 weeks, stating that a decision on whether an additional charge will be made needs to be made by September 5.

If the Crown need more time, a full written application must be made to the judge.

Speaking at court, Judge Goozee said: “There has been an adjournment already and I’m now told that for various reasons that a charging decision will not be made for four to five months.

“The prosecution places the court in a difficult situation because they have already charged [Willicombe] with two offences but are potentially using it as a holding charge.

“If they needed more time there was other avenues open to them. However, due to the nature of what happened, if there are to be further serious charges the crown should be given that time.”

Willicombe will now be due back in court in September. He appeared via video link due to fears for his safety if he appeared in court.

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He could be seen wiggling his tongue and smiling to someone off the camera.

The teen was previously charged with murder by Thames Valley Police but this charge was later dropped due to the ‘suspected motive’ not turning up any ‘hard evidence’.