An e-bike cyclist has confessed to killing a great-grandfather after crashing into him while the 91-year-old was putting out his bins.
Retired Royal Engineer James Blackwood was struck down by 50-year-old Clifford Cage on a residential road in Rochester, Kent, on July 6, 2023.
The pensioner was rushed to hospital where he sadly died from internal injuries three months later, on October 13, after being hit by the e-biker.
Maidstone Crown Court heard the great-grandfather-of-seven was placing his bins out on the streets when he was killed.
Cage pleaded not guilty to one count of manslaughter and to causing bodily harm by wanton or furious driving, before later confessing to the manslaughter charge.
Prosecuting, Gemma White, told the court his plea was ‘acceptable’, therefore they would not be pursuing a trial on the second count.
The bodily harm charge was allowed to lie on file – meaning the trial did not proceed despite enough evidence – because more serious counts were confessed.
Mitigating, Danny Moore KC, described him as a ‘man of previously good character’, while Judge Philip St John-Stevens ordered a psychiatric report be carried out before the sentencing.
Retired Royal Engineer James Blackwood (pictured) was struck down by Clifford Cage, 50, on a residential in Rochester, Kent, on July 6, 2023
The veteran’s daughter, Christine White, (pictured) said Cage’s guilty plea meant as a family they did not have to ‘keep reliving how dad died’
Following the hearing, the veteran’s daughter, Christine White, said Cage’s guilty plea meant as a family they did not have to ‘keep reliving how dad died’.
They spoke of their ‘extreme’ relief that the cyclist had opted to pleading guilty, saving their family from ‘another year of distress’.
‘Personally, I was dreading having to relive the morning of the accident from the witness box,’ she told The Telegraph.
‘I hope this case illustrates the need for those cyclists who show scant regard for the rules of the road to think again.’
The grieving daughter also voiced her hopes of the case coming to an end by Christmas so the family could begin to heal.
Cage has since been released on bail prior to his sentencing in the Kent court on January 12, 2026.
The 50-year-old had previously been scheduled to appear in a trial which may have been postponed until August 2028, the court was told.
Cage had been due to face trial in September 2026, which the court previously heard could be delayed until August 2028.
Speaking of the possible delay in July, Mr Blackwood’s family said they felt ‘disappointment and frustration’.
Following his death in 2023, the family paid a touching tribute to the ‘great handyman’ who had a ‘brilliant sense of humour’.
Ms White described her father as an ‘active and energetic person’ who still drove himself and did his own food shop on a bi-weekly basis.
The DIY-lover ‘ran the household’ while also helping his wife in both the kitchen and the garden, his daughter added.
‘He was a healthy and active 91-year-old, and I fully expected him to reach 100 – a real old-fashioned gentleman.’
Before retiring from the military in 1972 at the age of 40, he was stationed in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Malaya and West Germany.
Later, he worked at a power station on the Isle of Grain in Kent as well as in Saudi Arabia before eventually retiring in Rochester in 1985.
