A JURY took just 35 minutes to clear a 70-year-old man of blame following the death of a motorcyclist in a crash.

Helmet-cam footage showed the jury the seconds before the motorcyclist died in a collision with a classic rally car pulling out at a junction.

John Abel, a company director from Walton on the Wolds, Loughborough, denied causing the death of Michael Shelley by driving a Ford Escort RS on the B5105 in Clocaenog Forest without due care and attention in September last year.

Caernarfon crown court heard on Thursday that the electrical engineer Mr Shelley, 48, of Liverpool, was riding “very fast” that morning on picturesque roads and far in excess of the 60mph limit.

Prosecutor John Philpotts had said if the biker had been riding within the speed limit the crash might have been avoided or the impact “very significantly reduced.” But counsel alleged: ”This doesn’t exonerate or excuse Mr Abel’s carelessness in pulling out when the road wasn’t clear.”

The prosecution accepted the layout of the junction had also been “far from ideal” and there was a hidden dip in the road.