A GRIEVING widow whose cyclist husband died after being hit by a car says she has lost respect for the legal system.

Frenchman Arnaud Caudal, 27, was yesterday found not guilty of causing the death of Graham Price by dangerous driving.

The Yuasa Battery worker was fined £500 after jurors found him guilty of driving carelessly. He was also banned from driving for six months.

But speaking after the Newport crown court verdict, widow Jane Price, 46, said: "What does that say to my three children? That their father was worth just £500. I now have no respect for the law at all."

Senior ambulance driver Mr Price, of Rhiwderin, suffered fatal head injuries after being hit by Caudal's car at around 7.30am on the A467 Risca bypass at the Rogerstone slip road junction on December 17 2001.

He was rushed to the Royal Gwent Hospital, Newport, and then transferred to the Heath Hospital, in Cardiff, for emergency surgery.

He never regained consciousness and died two days later. Mrs Price, who stayed by her dying husband's bedside with her children, said: "I told him I loved him - always. When they turned the machine off we just held him."

Caudal, who graduated from the University of Wales, Swanseain chemical engineering, told the court he had "de-iced and scraped every window" of his car before setting off for work.

He also stopped at a bus stop minutes later to de-ice the windows again. Caudal later told police officers he had not realised his windscreen visibility was so bad. And giving evidence he told jurors: "As far as I was concerned the visibility was good. "When the accident happened I heard a noise. I saw something through my windscreen. I realised I has hit someone. I was in a state of shock. I was hysterical."

Caudal, formerly of Rogerstone, now lives with his partner Clare Langford in Cwmbran. Mrs Price, a former ward sister, said after the case that she had always tried to bring up her children, Gregg, 19, and 14-year-old twins, Lauren and Stuart, to have faith in authority.

But she added: "I have lost my confidence in the legal system. I've taught my children to be law-abiding and to be careful of themselves and others - but that has not come through in the courts.

"Graham will never see his grandchildren. He will never see his children getting married. We have all lost so much. He was our rock, our foundation."

But she added: "I have to let it go, I have to let the bitterness go or it will eat us all away."

PICTURED: Jane Price, with a picture of husband Graham.