Solicitor left paralysed by cycling accident sues £79 mountain bike instructor for £4m – Telegraph.co.uk

But Mr MacLean denies all blame, saying that Mr Ahmed rode down the ‘wrong part of the track’ and then, on a second attempt, ‘made exactly the same error’.

“I am 100 per cent sure he made the same mistake twice,” he told the court.

“I was surprised at the time. It has been on my mind for four-and-a-half years and I am absolutely positive it happened.”

Tim Horlock QC said Mr MacLean, who is also a teacher, was a “reliable witness and a careful and considerate instructor”.

“He is the very opposite from the picture that is sought to be painted of a cavalier or gung-ho, authoritative or rushed, instructor,” added the QC.

Mr Ahmed’s mountain biking experience ‘was significantly greater than one might have been led to believe’.

The instructor did not “rush” the group or “progress them too fast”, insisted Mr Horlock.

Mr Ahmed “knew that he could walk when he wanted to’ and that ‘he was under no pressure to undertake anything which he thought was beyond him”.

Mr MacLean had “satisfied himself by the time they got to Barry Knows Best that they were ready for it”, added the QC.

And Mr Horlock told the judge that mountain biking involves risk “by its very nature”.

“There was nothing unreasonable about permitting Mr Ahmed, a mountain biker of 12 years’ experience, to have a run down the slope once, or more than once,” he said.

Mr Justice Baker will give his ruling on Mr Ahmed’s case at a later date.