A PENSIONER is due to appear in court next week charged with causing a crash in which an award-winning police officer was killed.
A PENSIONER is due to appear in court next week charged with causing a crash in which an award-winning police officer was killed.
Patricia Maltby, 71, from Christopher Lane in Sudbury, has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving and will appear at Ipswich Crown Court next Friday.
It follows a crash on the A12 on January 29 which killed Hadleigh resident Sgt Bob Walsham, 48, who worked for Essex Police.
The fatal collision happened on the London-bound stretch of the road at East Bergholt when a silver Vauxhall Corsa and a purple Kawasaki motorcycle driven by Sgt Walsham collided.
The female driver of the Corsa was unhurt but Sgt Walsham was pronounced dead at the scene.
He spent 19 years with Essex Police after seven years in the Metropolitan force. During his time with Essex Police he was awarded three Chief Constable's Commendations and the Millard Trophy for work in West Clacton.
In 2007 Sgt Walsham moved to a post in Colchester town centre while living in Hadleigh with his fiancée, Emma Claxton and her four children. The couple had been due to get married in August.
Sgt Walsham helped the Black Shuck Motorcycle Club to raise money for local charities and in August last year he helped the club put on a motorbike rally in aid of Ipswich's St Elizabeth Hospice.
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