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A father has been found not guilty of encouraging an alleged race that led to the death of his son and family friend and the serious injury of his two other sons.
The jury delivered their verdict to Mark Nicholl snr on Friday afternoon in a courtroom packed with the family of both men who died during the crash on September 25 in 2021. Sighs of relief could be heard from supporters in the public gallery of the Christchurch District Court.
The 55-year-old’s son Mark Nicholl jnr, 30, and family friend William Clark, 29, were both killed. Another son, Jayden Nicholl, was seriously injured and a third son, Shanan Nicholl, suffered a traumatic brain injury.
After the verdict was delivered there was a minute of silence in the courtroom to honour Nicholl jnr and Clark’s lives.
On Friday morning, Judge Gerard Lynch summed up the case to the jury before they began deliberating.
Nicholl snr faced two charges of being a party to dangerous driving causing death and one of dangerous driving causing injury.
He acknowledged the loss Nicholl snr and his family had suffered through the death of one son and injuries to the other two, as well as the loss the Clark family had suffered.
The judge reminded the jury to put any feelings of sympathy or prejudice aside when reaching their verdict and focus solely on whether the Crown had proved its case.
Judge Lynch said the Crown case was that right from the moment the group left Armadillos in Islington, Nicholl snr had “ignited the flame” and encouraged his son Shanan and nephew Ricky to race.
Crown prosecutor Deirdre Elsmore said Nicholl snr had sped down Main South Rd and by the time Shanan had lined up next to him at the traffic lights, the message was clearly sent that “dads on board” as he followed his son in “hot pursuit” after the lights turned green.
Judge Lynch said the defence case was that it was simply Shanan and Ricky racing, and Nicholl snr was hanging back and doing his own thing.
Nicholl snr’s lawyer Joshua Lucas said it was Shanan and Ricky who engaged in speeding and racing behaviour and to suggest that Nicholl snr was a party to it “is simply not sensible” and there was no evidence of him doing any burnouts or spinning his wheels.
The jury retired to begin deliberations just after 11am and returned the not-guilty verdicts for all three charges at 2pm.
The judge said after the verdict was delivered that it would have been difficult for the Crown to prove its case, stating it was “a bit like forcing a square peg into a round hole”.
By Emily Moorhouse
Open Justice multimedia journalist