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The father of one of five men killed in a wrong-way crash involving a police car has been charged after an alleged disturbance at his son’s funeral in Middlesbrough.
Gye Worthy, 39, was arrested at Teesside Crematorium during the funeral service for his 17-year-old son, Cole Worthy, on Wednesday.
Cleveland Police said Worthy has since been charged with common assault and obstructing police. He is due to appear before Teesside Magistrates’ Court in October.
The charge comes as the families of those killed in the A66 crash continue to mourn their losses.
Cole Worthy, 17, was one of five people travelling in a Volkswagen Passat that collided head-on with a marked armed police vehicle on the A66 at South Bank during the early hours of 22 August.
The crash also claimed the lives of 23-year-old Michael Robert Cahill, 23-year-old Jakub Matusiak, 18-year-old Makai Saddington and 17-year-old Theo Rae.
Cole’s funeral was held on the same day as the funeral of PC Matthew Blades, 37, one of the two police officers killed in the collision.
The deaths have prompted a major investigation into the circumstances surrounding the crash.
PC Blades had been travelling along the A66 with his colleague, PC Tom Clough, when their marked police vehicle was struck by the Passat travelling in the wrong direction.
According to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, the officers had been travelling in the area after a camera detected cloned registration plates linked to the Passat.
The police vehicle was looking for the Passat, although the two officers were not involved in the pursuit that preceded the fatal collision, the watchdog said.
PC Blades and PC Clough were both killed in the crash.
The circumstances leading up to the collision remain subject to investigation.
Cleveland Police confirmed that Gye Worthy was arrested at Teesside Crematorium following a disturbance during his son’s funeral.
He has been charged with common assault and obstructing police.
Worthy is due to appear at Teesside Magistrates’ Court in October.
The charges are allegations at this stage, and Worthy has not been convicted of either offence.
The circumstances of the reported disturbance have not been fully detailed by police.
In a further development surrounding the wider circumstances of the A66 tragedy, it later emerged that a property in Acklam, Middlesbrough, linked to the Worthy family had been rammed by a car shortly before the fatal crash.
The incident involving the property occurred before the collision on the A66.
The significance of the earlier incident and any connection it may have to events surrounding the crash remain matters for investigators to establish.
The A66 collision resulted in the deaths of five people travelling in the Passat and two police officers.
The five passengers were Cole Worthy, Michael Robert Cahill, Jakub Matusiak, Makai Saddington and Theo Rae.
PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough were travelling in the police vehicle involved in the head-on collision.
The deaths have resulted in separate funerals and continuing investigations into the events before the crash.
With Gye Worthy now due before magistrates, the legal proceedings concerning the alleged funeral incident will be dealt with separately from the investigations into the fatal A66 collision.
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