THE key witness against a man accused of stealing a car that rammed a police motorcyclist before being torched, yesterday said that the prosecution had harassed him into court. Andrew Lohmeier also failed to confirm prosecution claims that stepson Timothy Ozanne had confessed to him.

No witnesses yesterday firmly identified Mr Ozanne as being behind the wheel during a high-speed chase.

‘I just want to say all down the line I have been harassed and intimidated and my family have been harassed down to the last minute of this case,’ Mr Lohmeier told the Royal Court.

‘I find it appalling they have gone to these extents to get me to court today.’

The case had been delayed because of his ill health.

Asked what the accused said to him when he visited him at the prison, Mr Lohmeier said it was difficult to remember.

‘Tim said something about a car was being driven and it reversed and banged into something and drove off – that’s all I remember. I don’t remember whether Tim said he was the driver or someone else was.

‘He was, in my eyes, in a state of shock and didn’t understand what was going on.’

Mr Lohmeier did, however, confirm that Mr Ozanne did not phone and he did not attend the scene on the day of the arrest – as was claimed by the defendant in interview with the police.

Mr Ozanne, 22, of Eidelstein, Port Soif Lane, Vale, denied five counts: stealing a motor vehicle, assaulting a police officer and driving while banned, dangerously and without third party insurance.

Advocate Fiona Russell, prosecuting, said that Mr Lohmeier visited the defendant in prison the day after the arrest, when Mr Ozanne apologised to him for driving and said that he panicked when he reversed into, what he later learned, was a police motorcycle.

‘The Crown says this is the final, damning evidence that makes Timothy Ozanne guilty of these offences,’ said Advocate Russell.

The court heard that Jason Allez’s Toyota MR2 was taken from outside his girlfriend’s house in Port Soif Lane on or around 16 January.

At Maryland Service Station, Cobo, at about 7.45am on Monday 16 January, assistant Geoffrey Marquis served the driver of the Toyota with 70p-worth of petrol in a can – the engine remained running – before the car sped off.

He said the driver was wearing a woolly hat but, because it was relatively dark, could not describe him or a passenger in the car in more detail.

Mr Marquis also said that the driver was not wearing glasses and paid from a brown wallet which had a Checkers card inside.

A black wallet with a Checkers card was found along with a beanie hat next to the defendant when he was arrested.

Advocate Russell said that at about 8.30am PC Yves Le Normand saw the car speeding towards him along Les Amarreurs Road.

He pursued at up to 60mph as the car went straight through Les Tracheries crossroads, overtaking on a blind bend and clipping a wall in Basses Capelles before stopping at the yellow line opposite the Pony Inn.

The court heard how the Toyota reversed into PC Le Normand, knocking the bike over and trapping his leg.

It headed to the Corbet Field where almost immediately it hit a VW Beetle and stopped, at which point the passenger ran off.

The Toyota again sped off into Route Carre, subsequently overtaking at least seven vehicles along Port Soif and narrowly avoiding a collision.

Officers discovered the car ablaze at Le Guet.

Mr Ozanne was arrested at Cobo car park. Witness Matthew Castle, who was edging grass at the time, described seeing him entering the car park opposite the path from Le Guet.

A police tracker dog followed a scent from the burning wreck through the pine trees down to Mr Ozanne, who was still being spoken to by officers.

In interview Mr Ozanne said he was out for a walk, having not slept all night.

He claimed to have gone along the lower side of Le Guet, and had stopped at Cobo to phone his father-in-law for a lift home because the kiosk was closed and he was tired.

The case continues today.