A Bradford man cleared of causing the death of a 15-year-old cyclist by chasing after him has called for crash helmets to be made compulsory.

Jack Binns, 73, said he was relieved by the jury's verdicts but felt sorrow for the dead boy's family.

Mr Binns, of Haycliffe Road, Little Horton, was yesterday unanimously found not guilty of causing the death of Adrian Gilhooly by dangerous driving on May 1 last year.

He was also cleared of the lesser alternative charge of dangerous driving.

During the trial at Bradford Crown Court, the jury heard Adrian was riding a friend's bike with a wobbly front wheel and defective brakes. He was not a confident cyclist and he was not wearing a safety helmet when he lost control of the bike on a steep hill and struck a telegraph pole.

He died of multiple injuries, including a broken neck.

Witnesses saw his bike bouncing downhill, end over end, after he was flung off.

Prosecutor Jonathan Gibson alleged Mr Binns was chasing Adrian and his three teenage friends in his car after shouting at them for messing with the vehicle on Ovenden Wood Road, Halifax.

The lads turned off down Wood Lane and Mr Binns carried on to a local shop, not realising Adrian had come off the bike.

Mr Binns told the jury he saw some lads messing about around his car. One was sitting on the bonnet and he shouted at them to get off. The boys pedalled off and he got into his car shortly afterwards to visit the shop.

The boys were ahead of him and the closest he got to them was "two or three houses away". They turned down a hill and he carried on towards Halifax.

He said: "I wasn't wanting to catch up with them at all. If I had wanted to catch up with them, I could have done so in seconds. I never chased those boys along the road. Never. I've got children of my own."

Speaking moments after the verdicts, Mr Binns said: "They should make it a legal requirement that youngsters wear a crash helmet when they are riding a bike. The police should take the bike off them if they don't."