A man accused of seriously injuring his friend by crashing his bike drunk was cleared by a jury yesterday.

Shawn Gibson insisted during his trial that he'd loaned his bike to victim Daniel Wilks and was only the pillion passenger during the crash that left them both hurt.

Mr. Wilks, 27, spent three weeks in a coma after the collision, which saw the bike go out of control and hit an oncoming car on South Shore Road late on April 13, 2008. He suffered fractures to his ribs, collarbone, spine and shin bone, shattered his thigh bone and suffered two punctured lungs.

Mr. Wilks insisted during his evidence that Mr. Gibson, a close friend of 15 years, was riding the bike at around 110 kph at the time of the crash.

Mr. Gibson, 35, a former Marine and Ports worker from Southampton, sustained two hairline fractures to his right ankle, a broken nose and pelvis and chipped bones in his pelvis, plus an injured left knee.

Both he and Mr. Wilks admitted during the Supreme Court case that they'd had several drinks in South Shore bars prior to getting on the bike that night. However, Mr. Gibson denied causing grievous bodily harm (GBH) by driving impaired, driving under the influence and failing to comply with a demand for a breath test on the basis that he was not the rider.

He spent almost seven weeks in custody over the case before walking free after yesterday's unanimous verdict.

Speaking on Mr. Gibson's behalf afterwards, his lawyer Larry Mussenden said: "He's pleased with the result, it's unfortunate that an accident did take place and we trust both men, who were very close, can get on with their lives. These kinds of accidents do happen. Based on the evidence, we did not think that the Police had actually investigated this case as fully as they could have."

The case has a tangled history of Mr. Gibson changing his account of what happened, and his pleas to the charges he faced.

When he first appeared in court in July he pleaded not guilty and was bailed. But in October, on the morning his trial was due to begin, he changed his plea to the GBH charge to guilty. The Crown asked for the other charges to remain on file and Mr. Gibson was granted bail. He appeared before Puisne Judge Carlisle Greaves on December 10 but the judge refused to sentence him when Mr. Gibson told him he was the pillion passenger, not the rider.

The judge told him: "You can't plead guilty and at the same time say it wasn't you. No matter what you say from now on you're going to trial. You're wasting the court's time."

He then ordered that Mr. Gibson be held on remand until the trial began last Tuesday. During the case, the prosecution called Mr. Gibson's mother, Hannah Gibson, and stepfather, Kenneth Rawlins, to give evidence, as well as Police officers Gary Alexander and Tiffany Caisey.

Those witnesses explained how Mr. Gibson told them in the hours after the accident that he was riding himself but later changed his story to say Mr. Wilks was riding.

Mr. Gibson subsequently told the Police and the jury in his trial that he'd falsely admitted to being the rider to protect Mr. Wilks, who had been drinking and upset that day over a fight with his girlfriend.

Defence lawyer Mr. Mussenden pointed out that the Police did not call in an expert collision scene investigator to get to the the bottom of what happened. The Police officers said this was not done because it was originally thought Mr. Wilks only suffered a broken leg.

Mr. Wilks, a painter from Hamilton, told this newspaper in October that he's had to have multiple operations since the collision and still faces more. He said he and Mr. Gibson are "definitely not friends" anymore. He was not present for the verdict and declined a request for comment afterwards. Mr. Gibson could not be reached for comment.