A RACE marshal has been cleared of failing to ensure he carried out health and safety duties after a woman spectator was killed at a mountain biking event.

Kevin Ian Duckworth, 42, was a marshal at the British Downhill Series Mountain Biking Competition in Wales when 29-year-old spectator Judith Garrett was hit by an out-of-control bike.

The cycling event took place at Llangollen on August 21, 2014, and Miss Garrett was attending with her boyfriend, Pete Walton.

She was airlifted to the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, in Stoke, after being struck on the head but died the following day.

Mr Duckworth, of Addison Street, Accrington, was alleged to have left his post at the time Miss Garrett was hit.

But Judge Rhys Rowlands directed the jury to find Mr Duckworth not guilty of the charge of failing to ensure he carried out his health and safety duties as a marshal.

The event's organiser, Michael Marsden has been accused of failing to ensure the safety of spectators.

The court heard Marsden, 41, did not believe an 'exclusion zone' was needed on the track. The trial against him continues.

Marsden of Gressingham Drive, Lancaster, is accused of failing to ensure the safety of spectators at the event and failing to make a suitable assessment of the health and safety risks posed to spectators.

The British Cycling Federation faces a charge of failing to conduct an undertaking in such a way as to ensure the health and safety of people attending.

The prosecution allege a lack of attention to detail had dogged the planning of the event and that the area near a three-jump stretch where Miss Garrett, of Prudhoe, Northumberland, was hit should have been taped off and designated a 'no-go area'.

Marsden recalled he had a conversation with event commissaire Alex Thompson about the taping of the track, but recalled he had “made no adverse comments at all".

He told the court he did not think there needed to be an exclusion zone at the point where the crash happened.

He said: "I have never seen anybody come off the track there."

Marsden told the court he had prepared a generic risk assessment for the event which he sent off to Welsh Cycling after which he received a race permit.

He recalled talking to Martin Sands, the landowner at Tan Y Graig Farm, about choosing a course for the 2014 Downhill race and the farmer told him he did not want to use the previous year’s track, which had been Marsden’s preference.

The Lancaster-based businessmen said he had been organising mountain bike events at weekends since 2008, trading as Borderline Events, and had put on about 45 events around the UK since 2014.

But he was no longer organising events, and under cross-examination from prosecuting barrister James Hill QC he said he organised his last event last October.

“I stopped because I felt like I needed to,” said Marsden, who also told the court how the death of Miss Garrett had affected him badly, leaving him needing to take medication to help him sleep.

He also told the court: “As sad as I feel, it can’t be as sad as how the [Garrett] family feels.”

Marsden and the British Cycling Federation deny all charges and the case continues.