Boy, 15, has his cycle stolen after having crash and breaking finger (From The Oxford Times)

Boy, 15, has his cycle stolen after having crash and breaking finger

9:00am Wednesday 1st August 2012 in News By Ben Wilkinson, Crime Reporter. Call me on (01865) 425427

Sam Gillingham, 15, with the injuries he sustained in the crash before having his bike stolen Picture: OX53503 Ed Nix

A THIEF stole a teenager’s bike while paramedics patched him up in an ambulance after a nasty crash. Sam Gillingham, from Summertown, Oxford, suffered a deep cut on his left hand and a broken finger in the head-on collision with another cyclist on Sunday.

But while paramedics attended to him, a criminal stole his £250 second-hand racing bike which lay next to a blood stain on the pavement. The teenager had gone for the bike ride after watching Briton Lizzie Armitstead win a silver medal in the Olympics cycling road race.

Mum Helen Payne, 45, said she found her 15-year-old son “distraught” after the crash in Hawksmoor Road, Cuttleslowe, by the A40 at about 4pm.

She said: ”I feel quite disgusted with society that people, who don’t seem to have a conscience, would do that with the ambulance there.”

And Sam last night told the Oxford Mail he was still in disbelief. He said: “I was so surprised, I didn’t really believe it. I don’t really know how somebody could do that, especially with the ambulance there and the blood.”

The St Edward’s School pupil’s finger was put in a splint by paramedics and his cuts fixed with butterfly stitches.

Stepdad Paul Humphreys, 47, said the bike’s front wheel had buckled in the smash, so the thief must have carried the cycle away or taken it in a vehicle.

He said: “He was full of the Olympic spirit and keeping his fitness going and then this happened.

“It’s totally dreadful.

“It must have been stolen while Sam was in the ambulance, that is how sad it is.

“There was a bike on the floor with a pool of blood next to it so they would have been aware of exactly what they were doing – it is just mind-boggling.”

The youngster went to Oxford’s John Radcliffe Hospital for an X-ray and will go for a check-up next week.

The keen rower won the coxed four Junior Inter-Regional Regatta for the Upper Thames region in May. He is coached at St Edward’s by former pupil Cameron MacRitchie, who took lit the cauldron during Friday’s Olympic Opening Ceremony. But he has been told by doctors he may not be able to row again for up to two months.

The cyclist who collided with him was unhurt, but stayed with him until his parents arrived.

South Central Ambulance Service spokesman Ngozi Fakeye said: “A 15-year-old was taken to the John Radcliffe. The second person seemed to be fine.”

Thames Valley Police spokesman Claire Gourlay said: “We are investigating a report of bike that was stolen while the victim was being treated in an ambulance in Hawksmoor Road on Sunday between 4pm and 4.30pm.”

Anyone who saw the incident can call police on 101 or the Crimestoppers charity anonymously on 0800 555 111.