Warrant for dad of A66 teen over funeral assault

An arrest warrant has been issued for a man who attacked a celebrant at the funeral of his son, one of five men and two police officers killed in a head-on crash.

Gye Worthy, 40, admitted common assault and resisting arrest at his son's funeral at Teesside Crematorium in Middlesbrough after a disturbance during the service on 9 September.

His son Cole Worthy, 17, died when the Volkswagen Passat he and four others were in collided with a marked armed police car on the A66 in South Bank in the early hours of 22 August.

On Tuesday Worthy failed to turn up for sentencing at Teesside Crown Court, which heard he had not spoken to his solicitors or explained his absence to the court.

Worthy, of Ruskin Avenue, Middlesbrough, was also due to be sentenced for stealing four bottles of wine worth £30 from a shop on 8 October.

Deputy District Judge Julia Baggs agreed to an application by the prosecution for a warrant to be issued, "not backed by bail".

That meant he would have to be held in custody ahead of a future court date once he has been located.

The deputy district judge said: "In these circumstances, I do accept the application for a warrant not backed by bail."

Worthy previously admitted assaulting the celebrant Paul Maull during the funeral service for Cole Worthy.

Cole Worthy's funeral was held on the same day as that of PC Matthew Blades, 37, who was one of the officers killed in the crash.

PC Blades had been travelling along the A66 with his colleague PC Tom Clough when their car was struck head-on by the Passat travelling in the wrong direction.

The pair were in a vehicle looking for the Passat after its cloned registration plates triggered a camera, although they were not involved in the pursuit which preceded the crash, according to the Independent Office for Police Conduct.

The others killed in the Passat were Michael Robert Cahill, 23, Jakub Matusiak, 23, Makai Saddington, 18, and 17-year-old Theo Rae.

It later emerged a property on a street in Acklam, Middlesbrough, linked to the Worthy family had been rammed by a car shortly before the fatal crash.

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