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Video: Ultra-sweary driver fined for threatening rant at cyclistSussex swearing man YouTube still

Video: Ultra-sweary driver fined for threatening rant at cyclist

Rider says he hopes abusive motorist will think twice in future
by John Stevenson
Thu, Sep 04, 2014 13:09
37

A driver who launched a terrifying foul-mouthed tirade against an Eastbourne cyclist has been ordered to pay a total of £640 in fines and costs after the rider caught the incident on video.

Mark Baldwin, 60, climbed out of his Jaguar on March 10 this year to attack 38-year-ol cyclist Eddie Bell. Mr Bell used his phone to record the altercation in which Baldwin crammed 25 swear-words into 37 seconds of name-calling.

After the video appeared on YouTube, Baldwin voluntarily visited a police station, according to The Argus.

He appeared at Hastings’ Magistrate Court on August 19 and pleaded guilty to using threatening or abusive words or behaviour with intent to cause the victim to think violence would be used against him and was ordered to pay a £505 fine, £50 victim surcharge and £85 costs. According to Sussex police, an additional charge of assault was dismissed.

Mr Bell told The Argus: “I was quite happy with the amount of disruption, cost and worry this has caused him over the last six months.

“Hopefully he will think twice about his actions in future.”

If you need a memory refresher, here's the original video. As you might expect, it's very much Not Safe For Work unless your co-workers have the kind of broad minds about swearing normally only developed by those who work in sport publishing.

YouTube
Sussex Police
Mark Baldwin
Eddie Bell
East Sussex
John Stevenson

John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.

He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.

Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.

John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.

He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.

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