AN EBBW Vale man whose girlfriend was killed when she was thrown from his motorbike told a jury he believed he had a licence to ride it.

Stephen Gilgrass, 52, is on trial at Newport Crown Court accused of causing the death of Michelle Warren by careless driving, causing death by driving while unlicensed and causing death by driving while uninsured.

Giving evidence about the incident on June 3 last year, on King Street, Brynmawr, Stephen Gilgrass told the court he produced his driving licence at a police station in 2009 following a different accident and was told by a woman there it was only a provisional.

“I just said to her provisional car licence, full bike licence. I went on my way and haven’t heard anything since,” Gilgrass said.

His defence counsel Harry Baker asked the defendant about this, and Gilgrass said he had taken a bike test in Cwmbran in the eighties.

Gilgrass told the court his then wife helped him fill in a slip to obtain a full driving licence, as he cannot read or write, and when he received a plastic card back he believed that was it. Returning from a car boot sale in Govilon, Gilgrass told the court before the accident which killed Ms Warren, another driver had reversed into him, pinning his leg against the bike.

He said after this he got back onto the road and began overtaking in the middle of the road.

“It was a bit of a jam, no-one seemed to be moving,” he told the jury. While doing so, Gilgrass said he was “nudged” by another car, which caused him to lose control.

“I was knocked sidesaddle and screwed the throttle open,” he said.

I shot up the road out of control and I don’t know what I hit.”

Gilgrass collided with a Ford Fiesta turning right driven by Jamie Griffiths, and he and Ms Warren, together for around two months, were thrown from the bike.

Ms Warren, a pillion passenger, died at the scene, while Gilgrass told the court his injuries included a broken pelvis, a damaged back and cracked ribs.

Cross examining Gilgrass, prosecutor Nicholas Gareth Jones suggested the defendant was trying to overtake the car turning right and had made a story up to account for his actions, which he denied.

Proceeding.