A 21-year-old man has appeared before magistrates charged with the unlawful killing of a 48-year-old farmer.
Timothy Higgins, 21, of The Glade, Wyllie, near Blackwood, was remanded in custody at Newport Magistrates’ Court yesterday, Thursday, March 7, and is due to appear at Newport Crown Court on April 4.
Higgins is also charged with driving with no insurance and not having the correct category of licence. A charge of driving a motor vehicle without an MoT was withdrawn.
Christopher Gadd died just a day after his 48th birthday after allegedly being struck by a blue Land Rover outside Sainsbury’s Pontllanfraith on Monday, March 4.
Farmer Christopher and his brother Paul were on a routine shopping trip to the store when there was an alleged row over a space in the store car park.
Paramedics and an air ambulance were called to the scene where Christopher was pronounced dead.
Witnesses praised Sainsbury’s staff and members of the public who rushed to comfort the victim.
Bachelor Christopher and his other brother David lived together on the family farm two miles from the store. Christopher wore two hearing aids after being born profoundly deaf.
Paul, 49, said: “He didn’t stand a chance against a Land Rover. It is just terrible.
“I’ve spent my whole life with him. He had a great sense of humour. He was salt of the earth and he was loyal.”
Their fellow brother David, 35, said: “We are very close as brothers. We nursed our mother who died of cancer last year.
“It was Chris’s birthday just the day before this happened. He was a good man and he didn’t deserve to die this way.