A COURT date has been set for a GP who was critically injured while cycling in Ferndown.

Dr David Crichton is accused of trying to hire a hitman on February 26 last year. However, on the morning of Thursday, January 11 this year, he was involved in a collision with a grey Volkswagen Golf in Ham Lane.

The 63-year-old was seriously injured as a result of the collision. He was taken to Southampton General Hospital, where he is being treated in the neuro-intensive care unit.

As a result, a January date for a planned appearance before a judge at Winchester Crown Court was vacated. A new date has now been scheduled for March.

Dr Crichton, a long-time director of the Tolpuddle Gardens surgery and Muscliff Care Home, is alleged to have plotted to kill Andrew Bolden.

Prosecutors claim he ‘solicited, encouraged, persuaded or endeavoured to persuade or proposed to a person unknown’ to murder the finance expert.

Dr Crichton has also been charged with sending threatening e-mails and text messages to Mr Bolden over a nine month period.

The messages are said to have been sent between July 2016 and March last year with the intention of ‘causing distress and anxiety’.

Mr Bolden works for Edinburgh-based Brown Shipley Financial Advisers and specialises in offering members of the medical profession advice on pensions, tax and investment legislation.

Dr Crichton, of Cawdor Road in Talbot Woods, is a keen cyclist and belongs to a Bournemouth-based triathlon club.

A spokesperson for Winchester Crown Court said the defendant will appear for a plea and trial preparation hearing in March.