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news
Van driver assaults cyclist in Bristol (Twitter, BBC West)Road rage van driver who assaulted cyclist, knocking him unconscious, handed suspended sentence
A van driver who chased a cyclist before knocking him unconscious in a vicious road rage attack was handed a suspended prison sentence yesterday.
30-year-old Jack Rawlins, who had a previous caution for a similar attack on a cyclist, turned his vehicle around and followed the victim after the cyclist – who had been indicating to the approaching van driver to give him more space on a narrow residential road – was clipped by his van’s wing mirror during a head-on close pass in Bedminster, Bristol in February.
A clip of the incident, captured on the cyclist’s helmet camera and shared online by BBC West, shows Rawlins deliberately driving towards the cyclist on the nearby Weymouth Road a few minutes later, knocking him from his bike.
The painter and decorator, along with a passenger, then got out of the van and punched the victim in the face, knocking him unconscious, before driving off.
The cyclist was left with concussion and severe bruising to his ribs in the assault, and has suffered headaches and breathing problems in the months since the attack.
Rawlins was tracked down through his employer, whose contact details were printed on the van used in the attack, and later admitted to dangerous driving and assault in Bristol Crown Court.
The 30-year-old, who received anger management training as a teenager, told police that he chased the victim to “teach him a lesson” for “punching” his wing mirror.
Yesterday in court, Rawlins was handed a two-year prison sentence, suspended for two years, and was ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work, pay £920 in costs and compensation, and undertake an anger management course.
“This is your opportunity to address your anger and find different ways of dealing with it,” Judge Moira Macmillan told him.
Speaking after the sentencing, the victim told the BBC that he continues to cycle, but said that he is now more anxious on the roads and that his wife suffers panic attacks if he returns home late.
The 56-year-old business analyst also noted the dangers of motorists “othering” and dehumanising cyclists on the roads.
“There is a big problem of ‘othering’ of cyclists, they are seen as less than human,” he said.
“If something happens to someone’s car or something, it is seen as more important than the health and wellbeing of the cyclist, which I think is really worrying.
“Any kind of infraction of the Highway Code from cyclists is met with rage from people who may do plenty of things outside the Highway Code as well, but because it’s a cyclist they see that differently.”
> Road rage driver assaults teenage cyclist after clipping him with wing mirror
Two weeks ago, road.cc reported on a similar incident which saw a teenage cyclist allegedly assaulted by a motorist after clipping his wing mirror on a narrow country road.
After hitting the cyclist, the driver – a man reported to be in his 50s – turned his Mercedes around and confronted the youngster.
The motorist then dragged him from his bike and threw him to the ground, before tossing the bike into a nearby ditch and driving away. The teenager allegedly suffered bruising in the apparent road rage-induced assault.
Ryan joined road.cc in December 2021 and since then has kept the site’s readers and listeners informed and enthralled (well at least occasionally) on news, the live blog, and the road.cc Podcast. After boarding a wrong bus at the world championships and ruining a good pair of jeans at the cyclocross, he now serves as road.cc’s senior news writer. Before his foray into cycling journalism, he wallowed in the equally pitiless world of academia, where he wrote a book about Victorian politics and droned on about cycling and bikes to classes of bored students (while taking every chance he could get to talk about cycling in print or on the radio). He can be found riding his bike very slowly around the narrow, scenic country lanes of Co. Down.
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51 comments
We would have number plates for bicycles back on the political agenda by the end of the day.
No mention of a driving ban in the article?
I assume as it isn't mentioned there wasn't one but that person clearly should never be allowed to drive again, they have proved on two separate occassions that they are not mentally fit to undertake the responsibility of driving.
I presume he didn't identify the passenger who assaulted the cyclist as well.
Passenger didn't assault cyclist, driver threw one punch but i suspect passenger would have got involved if needed, and at least should have been investigated for potential incitement to commit violence.
Why wasn't he charged under the joint enterprise doctrine? In 2016 the UK Supreme Court clarified joint enterprise as a person being guilty if "if they intended to encourage or assist the person who committed the offence to do it" - quite clearly Scrote A was well up for helping out Scrote B if necessary and would have been encouraging him, he should have been up on the assault charge as well.
Wasn't there a case recently where a whole group of teenagers got done under the joint enterprise doctrine even though none of them had been involved in or had been anywhere near the incident in question.
Of course, they were all Black, IIRC...
Yes, it is certainly open to abuse, if you mean the Manchester case indeed some of the youths were convicted for angry text messages about taking revenge after one of their friends was killed, without any other evidence against them. Not good. However, in this case the scrote is right there on the scene and the fact that he has jumped out of the van and approached the cyclist at the same time as the assailant, coupled with the fact that he did nothing to stop the assailant nor to assist the victim, doesn't leave much room for ambiguity in his particular defence.
Yeah, I think that was the one.
.............
"Jack Rawlins, who had a previous caution for a similar attack on a cyclist"
Is this normal? Two instances of unprovoked violence, at least one of which leaves the victim unconscious, and doesn't get locked up?
We dont know when the other instance(s) were, or have the judges full summing up comments, it may have been presented as a last chance to turn their life around,or as sole wage earner if he had family to support does it impact them more by punishing him with a jail term etc etc.
I'm not trying to justify it, I think he's fortunate not to have ended up in jail for that with a record of similar aggression, but I know jail is considered the very last resort in cases like this and a suspended sentence is considered a custodial sentence, just one that doesnt involve time behind bars, it's still meant to control your behaviour to rehabilitation.
He does have to comply with the court orders on anger management and not come up again in court for 2 years or he will be yanked inside for a spell at His Majestys pleasure.
Is there an argument for a bit of vigilante action here?
I'm not saying we duff anyone up, cancel them, discredit the business, no I'm thinking, is there a way to support this chap in falling on his own sword?
Could local cyclists make a point of riding near this guys commuting routes, maybe near his employers location and bascially give him the opportunity to repeat offend?
Maybe only big, burly cyclists should apply?
We know he will reoffend (anger managment course didn't work last time), is there an argument to encoruage him to do so in a controlled environment?
I think that if anyone was to consider such an action, it would be wise to do it old school via voice telecoms and not be any form of written media (including SMS).
We can but hope that one day, this cocksocket will do something to the wrong person, and will then spend a while in ICU, and then the rest of his unnatural life in a wheelchair
I am a fairly large guy, well over 6 feet tall. I find I get the most aggressive driver behaviour when I am wearing a leather jacket, with a buzz cut, looking like someone I would probably cross the street to avoid. Its like agro drivers decide to behave worse towards those who look somewhat scary, either conciously or subconciously.
Nothing is more stark than the difference between riding a brompton and a full size bike though. Riding the brommie on my normal semi rural commute roads is taking your life into your hands.
I guess what I am saying is that if you are going to be trying to get this guy to attack someone again in order to send him to prison, getting a local biker gang chapter to circle his block on circus mini bikes it probably the best way to do it based on unreasonable extrapolation of my own observations.
I would never advocate such action and would strongly advise against doing what you propose, let the law take its path, if the individual re-offends within the 2 year period, they will be dealt with.
Maybe when he kills the third cyclist he'll get a prison sentence. Though I wouldn't be surprised f he got a caution.
Only when the victim is a cyclist.
That man needs to be in prison.
On the plus side, he seems like the sort of person who will not be able to behave himself for the two years of the suspended sentance.
Indeed. Whether he gets caught misbehaving is another matter. And given Avon and Somerset's diligence in this area, I don't expect he'll get caught.
Not really much of a plus if his next victim dies.
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