A motorist was cleared of blame for the death of a motorcyclist while changing lanes on the A5 in Snowdonia.

Aled Lloyd Jones, aged 24, of Capel Garmon, near Llanrwst, had denied causing the death of Tony Lawson, 27, by careless driving in a Mitsubishi pick-up. A Caernarfon crown court jury took less than 90 minutes to find him not guilty.

Mr Lloyd Jones, a builder, told his barrister Dafydd Roberts, in Welsh, that he had a clean licence.

He’d been driving to Anglesey to fetch an oil tank when he came across a car and two minibuses indicating to turn left into forestry near Betws y Coed.

He told the jury that he decided to overtake the traffic ahead of him and looked in his mirror to see if it were safe to do so. He also indicated to pull out, looked over his shoulder and checked his mirror again. As he pulled out, he heard a smash and the motorbike had collided with the back of the pick-up. He hadn’t been aware of the motorcyclist before.

“A car came down and went over him before I got out of the car,” he recalled.

“How do you feel about what happened?” Mr Roberts asked him. Mr Lloyd Jones replied: "Awful, somebody has lost their life.”

The barrister said: "Looking back, was there anything more you could have done?” Mr Lloyd Jones said: "Nothing.”

There had been nothing in the “fast” lane, he said. He was doing around 35 or 40mph, towing a trailer.

He told prosecuting barrister Sion ap Mihangel he wouldn’t have seen anything immediately behind the trailer.

The tragedy happened in July 2017. The prosecution said Mr Lawson, from Merseyside, was an enthusiastic motorcyclist and met up with other

riders via Facebook, travelling from Chester into North Wales.