Former youth footballer jailed after leaving pensioner in pool of blood with severe injuries in e-bike crash

Margaret Scaldwell was on her way to her daughter’s house when ‘reckless’ Kian Monks, 22, of The Avenue, Wigan, hit her at 40mph in a 30mph while driving an illegal off road e-bike in August 2023.

She was thrown into the air and was placed into a medically induced coma after the impact knocked out all her teeth and broke both her arms, pelvis, spine and nineteen ribs and gave her a brain injury.

Surgeons later put her back together inserting metal pins, plates and screws in her broken body.

Driver Monks, a former Wigan U18 youth striker, was this week sentenced to two years and three months jail at Bolton Crown Court having earlier pled guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous driving and driving without a helmet or licence and fleeing the scene.

His pillion passenger Joel Pilling, 22, who owned the defective bike with no back brakes, was sentenced to 22-months suspended sentence and 250 hours community service for dangerous driving and aiding and abetting Monks to cause serious injury while driving the defective bike which he had lent him.

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Now Ms Scaldwell - who also needed 10 steel plates fitted in her smashed face - is calling on the Government to clamp down on modified or high-powered e-bike riders who put vulnerable pedestrians like her in hospital.

Ms Scaldwell, who was 70 at the time and had to have all her teeth replaced after they were knocked out in the crash, said: “I still can’t believe this happened, especially just near my house. I sometimes think it is a dream but then I wake up and am in pain and I realise this is reality.  

"I was enjoying my retirement when everything changed in an instant. The daily pain now I endure is excruciating and never ending.

"These riders need to have a deterrent and at the minute there is none. So the government has to act.

"There are so many things that I can no longer do. They still have their whole lives ahead of them but mine has now been put on hold.

"I am the one living a life sentence and I have lost all my independence amongst many other things.”

Ms Scaldwell’s daughter, Michelle Glaister blasted: “No sentence would have mattered as the damage has already been done to mum.”

Ms Glaister believes the collision in August 2023 in Orrell, Greater Manchester, happened not just because the bike was speeding and the pair were doing wheelies, but also because it makes so little noise.

Grandmother-of-three Ms Scaldwell was on her way to her daughter’s house from her Orrell home when she was mown down as she crossed the road.

The pair fled the scene but were both later arrested by police.

Ms Scaldwell's injuries were so severe that she had to be treated by North West Air Ambulance crews on the scene who accompanied her to Salford Royal Hospital.

She spent three weeks in critical care and a further seven weeks in rehab and underwent six separate operations.

The court was shown footage of Monks minutes after the crash filmed by a bystander, which showed blood dripping down his face with him claiming he wasn’t the driver.

He then walked to a taxi office and was arrested by cops and later told the court: "I thought he was going to die and didn’t want to be alone. I wanted to be with me mum.”

Monks later claimed in court that he had memory issues due to his head injury and believed he was the passenger at the time of the collision right up until he was shown CCTV to the contrary in a police interview.

But Judge Jon Close didn’t believe him calling it ‘a prolonged, clear effort to avoid blame and blacken the character of your co defendant until the lie could no longer be maintained.’

In mitigation the court heard how Monks played as a centre-forward for Wigan Athletic’s Youth Team during 2020/21 season. He has been without a club since July 2022.

He was described in court as having a 'promising football career' that also included some time as an academy player at Bolton Wanderers but 'suffered a career ending injury to his ankle' and then started to get in with the wrong crowd.

The court was told by Pilling's defence team that he is now a reformed character who was in with the 'wrong crowd' at the time of the collision.

In her victim impact statement, Ms Scaldwell said she was now ‘literally housebound’ and is living in the kitchen as she is unable to go upstairs since the accident.

She can longer chew or enjoy food or use a knife or fork after her teeth were knocked out in the crash and she needs help washing herself which feels ‘dehumanising’.

Detective Constable Steve Pennington from GMP’’s Serious Collision Unit said: "This was a shocking incident where two individuals recklessly rode an e-bike through one of Wigan's busiest areas with complete disregard for public safety.

“Their dangerous driving resulted in a horrific collision with a grandmother who was simply crossing the road. She suffered life-changing injuries and spent weeks in a coma – it's nothing short of miraculous that she survived

“This incident highlights the severe consequences of operating e-bikes illegally on our roads".

Ms Scaldwell has now launched a legal claim for compensation over her injuries against the Motor Insurance Bureau -which covers legal claims involving uninsured drivers.

Robin Patey Principal Partner at accident specialists Express Solicitors said the crash had changed her life forever.

He said: “Margaret continues to live with the horrific injuries caused in this crash and is virtually housebound and will likely need care for the rest of her life.

“We have seen a sharp increase in cases of pedestrians being badly injured by e-bikes across the country. Often they are travelling at the same speed as cars but on pavements and roads with entire communities now blighted and people afraid to leave their front doors.

“There is no robust deterrent to stop these out of control e-biker riders causing havoc on the roads. Urgent action needs to be taken by the government to battle this growing problem.”