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news
Police tape (CC licensed by freefotouk on Flickr)Suspended sentence for man who pushed over charity cyclists
A man who attacked cyclists by shoving them off their bikes from a moving car has been handed a three-month suspended sentence by magistrates in Kent.
Aaron Pauley, 21, filmed himself on his mobile phone as he leaned out of the passenger window of a car in Wye on May 10 2014 and pushed riders who were taking part in a Paris to Bury st Edmunds charity ride, reports Samantha Williams of KentOnline.
He managed to push over the riders of three bikes, including a tandem with a partially-sighted stoker.
The riders were on the third day of a four-day, 355-mile Memorial Cycle Ride in honour of friends and relatives who died in a plane crash in France four decades ago.
Witness Chris Berry, who was on the ride, said: “Two people were in a car and they pulled up alongside us and pushed people.
“I managed to stay on but the rider in front of me was pushed over.
“Further up the road, the tandem was pushed, which had a partially-sighted rider, and another bike carrying an ex-policeman was pushed, too.
“No-one was hurt as such, but it could have potentially been worse. The person in front of me was close to a barbed wire fence.
“I have no idea why he did it. He was young. I guess he thought it was humorous.
“We were angry. By that time we were very tired and were just angry that someone could do something so stupid.
“We spoke to some riders who were further along, and they said he’d tried to do the same thing.”
The following day, Pauley attacked another cyclist, shoving a 52-year-old man off his bike in Bell Lane, Biddenden.
Police traced Pauley through details supplied by riders including the car's registration number and descriptions of Pauley.
On May 21, 2014, they seized a mobile phone which had footage on it of the incidents, and he was arrested four days later.
Pauley pleaded not guilty to four charges of assault but was convicted of all four attacks.
He was sentenced to 90 days in prison, suspended for 12 months, ordered to perform 150 hours community service, and to pay £500 costs and an £80 victim surcharge.
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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31 comments
Multiple physical assaults, on separate victims, but no custodial sentence?
I wonder what that particular magistrate thinks is the minimum required offence to qualify for a period in chokey then?
"No need to imprison the little shit, the victims were only cyclists... not as if they mattered, or anything..."
I'm told people plead not guilty so they can then strike a deal with the court to plead guilty to a lesser offence. I was assaulted in work, people seem to think nurses are also punch bags! After convincing the police yes I want to press chargers he pleaded not guilty even though there were several witnesses and video evidence.
It seem to be how it's done by people who are familiar with the system. I suspect this is what this clown has done too. His sentance would be appropriate to what is acceptable by the courts, my feeling is that appart from it being dreadful, there needs to be a strong reaction from the courts as this seems to be becoming a popular pass time by thick people.
Why was the driver not banned from driving?
pleasing to see that the police followed up and a successful prosecution followed it, hope the police are also pursuing the car driver - the driver must have deliberately slowed to allow the idiot passenger to lean out and push the cyclists - in my book that is deliberate dangerous driving - well below any normally accepted standard and with specific intent to cause harm
message needs hammering home into small brains
As a man of Kent (living in Manchester for the last fifteen year) I wholeheartedly support the statements made above. It's the only place in England I've been in the pub and heard loud blatantly racist conversation. It might be pretty bit it's full of more than its fair share of small minded idiots.
If nothing else this is another example of the worrying trend amongst a certain type of twat for doing something twatish and filming it to impress his twat friends.
True, but it makes the cops & CPS job easier in prosecuting these mentally-challenged oxygen-thieves.
Why I am not shocked he comes from Kent, apologies to sensible people from there reading this but that place deserves it's reputation and why they vote for UKIP people.
Apology not accepted. I'm not about to start making generalisations about every Brummie like you have about the 1.5m people in Kent, but I'm pretty sure I've found one moron from Birmingham at least!
PS UKIP's first elected MP was in Essex. Assume you hold similar prejudices against everyone from there too.
I think for his 150 hours he should be forced to ride a bike whilst people repeatedly push him off!
Right, just give the where and when and you'll have a queue of cars with occupants waiting to push him off. I'd even do it from my bike, a nice shoulder barge pushing him into a drainage ditch full of skanky water and brambles in the bottom.
This knobber needs a taste of his own medicine. If he had got near me he would have got punched. There must have been some one else doing the filming for him. Is there a picture of him anywhere?
can we not have links to people's personal facebook or phone numbers? The guy's a twat and the justice system has soft-soaped him, but no need for us to be contacting him
I thought if someone appeared in court, and were found guilty, their name (ok) AND address were in the public domain.
Am I wrong (as usual !) ?
Can't see this as a fair result at all. If he'd pleaded guilty and apologised then suspended sentence perhaps justifiable, but surely if you had tried to assault someone and just not managed to signigicantly hurt them due to blind luck it shouldn't be seen as any less severe an assault?
This is exactly what I was thinking when reading the article. How can he possibly have expected to get away with it after the police had found his footage on his phone?
He should be bending over a table in Bubba's cell right now...
He only has to look at just about any other case of assault on cyclist and think "I'll got off no problem" the case was being heard in Kent too. Ever when a jury of Kentish drivers convicts, the judge still doesn't hand out any real for of punishment.
Edit - My "bad" as they say. it was a magistrates court. But I'm sure the magistrate will be a driver. And from Kent, and probably voting UKIP - what hope does a cyclist have of getting any justice in these circumstances
So pushing people off bikes is worse than rape? Or are you saying rape is an acceptable form of punishment? Or are you just making a joke about rape?
I think the young hooligan's lack of imagination is the reason he thinks hurting and scaring people is funny, and you're as lacking in imagination.
I was pushed off my bike by someone in a car once. The police couldn't press charges, but the driver was in his dad's car and his dad said he could never borrow it again.
The sentencing in this country is pathetic that's why, anybody with common sense knows that an attempt to commit a crime still shows intent, whether they succeeded or not. Another example is attempted murder generally carrying a lesser sentence than murder. Why does it matter if they never managed to kill somebody, they've still tried to!
Fair result, no one injured on this occasion. Unfortunately for this youngster he will have this conviction follow him around for years blighting any prospects he had, which were limited in the first place.
Pretty sure it won't have been this idiot's first brush with the authorities, so would have had some prior warning that being a dick would get him in trouble.
He persisted, and now his life will suck harder. Not sure 'unfortunately' is an appropriate label for that. "Deserved" is more like it.
Well by the comments on KentOnline, he has prior for stealing a boat.
Good. What goes around, come around.
Good result.
No it is not a good result. 3 months suspended for multiple aggravated assaults and multiple dangerous driving offences is not a good result.
It's at the very lowest end of the sentences available. Having pleaded not guilty in court it doesn't even have a discount factored in. It's a pretty poor result.
How can I make this man unemployable?
driver immune to prosecution due to the fact he was driving a car and his human rights would be violated if he was punished.
This raises an interesting point. If the driver is deemed to be in charge of the vehicle then why is he not responsible for the actions & conduct of his passengers?
If the drivers licence could be placed in jeopardy by his passengers then a lot of this type of behaviour would suddenly cease (Hopefully!).
This is not as frivolous as it may seem.
Example 1: A passenger needs to alight from a vehicle. Who has the best view of anything approaching from the rear? The driver - his mirrors are set for him not his passenger.
Example 2: For the arsehole in the story to be able to push over the cyclists then the driver must be close enough for him to reach. He must be aiding & abetting/joint enterprise.
Something to raise when your door stepped by your parliamentary candidate?
What was the driver's sentence?
Good question. It's hard to believe that the driver was not a co-conspirator.
He filmed himself and then pleaded not guilty. Of what - having a brain?
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