Court case- CPS v a driver that assaulted me last June

Firstly brilliant story and well done for sticking with it.

The last reply has just reminded me of a thing that happened to me - which I only just remember has quite some relevance to some of the earlier comments about hand gestures -

I was riding along a fairly narrow residential street, cars parked on either side, about 100 yards from a t-junction onto a fairly main thoroughfare. Due to the parked cars there is basically one lane's worth of road space available, so I'm going up it about 2 metres out from the parked cars on my side, maybe three-and-a-bit metres from those on the other side. As I get to about 50 yards from the junction a car comes up behind me, revs, then goes for it round me in a break in the parked cars on the right, in a really exaggerated, aggressive overtaking maneuvre. It then of course has to slow right down again for the t-junction. I do the taking-both-hands-of-the-bars shrugging what the hell are you doing?' gesture, and say "what the hell do you thnk your doing?". Car slams on the brakes; reverse light comes on; car accelerates in reverse towards me. I have anoh shit' moment, and jump on the pedals to go round the car's left hand side, riding off for all my life's worth. The driver puts it back in forward and accelerates after me; I fly left at the t-junction without checking for traffic and then go up on the pavement about 100 yards down the road, the car has now decided trying to kill me probably isn't worth it and sails by - I notice there are actually two occupants in the car, the driver and presumably his girlfriend. I called the police and had a witness but gave up on following it up (like I didn't even return the police's phone calls. Stupid, but, anxiety eh?)

So, this stuff happens even with the mildest of gestures, is basically what I'm trying to say. I don't think anyone could consider my actions at all offensive or provocative, but the driver still flipped out (- I think he might have just thought it hilarious to `shit me up'. But hey, attempted murder is as attempted murder does, as they say)

Bloody hell! I don't know what else to say to that. Apart from you're lucky to be unharmed, and I hope he hasn't killed anyone by now! WAC. I wonder if his girlfriend was impressed by that!?

Good stuff.

i think most, me included, wouldn't have followed it through to conclusion given the hassle involved.

+1 to some people just being angry cunts looking for a reason to try bully someone. The thing I don't get is probably most of them are normal people and would never dream of it if you were both on foot, but when they are in a car and you are on a bike it's like a switch goes that means you are fair game..

Maybe it's the lycra ;)

I rode past a van this morning and slapped the open fuel lid shut. The guy looked at me so I made a fuel lid flapping shut motion followed by thumbs up. Not all hand gestures are evil.

I gave a cabbie the finger once as he turned into cut me up, but my gloves were so bulky it wasn't clear, he looked at me as he turned and thanked me.

Excellent news. What a horrible experience to go through, but I'm pleased that you didn't let it go, and it actually got to court.

My experience with the Met (and I've been assaulted three times - twice by cabbies) is that they can't be bothered, and won't even count it as a crime, so don't pass to the CPS. The Traffic Justice Unit does a great job in losing files, and the case of one guy who had his pelvis broken by a left-hooking truck driver only got to court because I (and one supportive Officer) forced them to reopen it after they'd lost everything. In case you're interested, the driver hadn't learned from his experience, and got himself three more points on his licence in the time it took to get the injury to court. Though the Magistrate was good, and basically told an obviously mendacious Bizzie to stop lying or step down from the stand, I came in for some fierce questioning - again based on the fact that I was a cyclist, and had somehow conspired with this guy I'd never spoken to or summat equally fanciful. I did my best. The driver was given one point short of his maximum, and thereby just saved from a ban.

As the defendant basically had no defence, they tried to build a case around my cycling being poor and him having got out of his car to tell me this.

The defence lawyer got a bit of a shock when I told the court I was a cycle instructor...

This part made me smile!

Well done Katie-Coo - it's nice to hear of someone standing up (successfully) for themselves.

Katie,
Ubergroover,
As a witness you can expect to be the lowest of the low, who has called you as a witness? When you attend court you will not be allowed in the court room until called to give evidence. The Clerk of the Court will be able to tell you approximately when you will be let in but it is worth taking a book as you will be waiting around in a corridor for some time. Any specific questions feel free to PM me

Zebs

Thanks Zebs. I've been called by the OB because I witnessed an incident between a motorist and a cyclist. It's a little more complicated than this but I don't want to say any more. Pretty pleased as the OB were prompt in getting in touch and chasing me up. I would hope that were I ever in need of witnesses they would be as good. How the court case goes is another thing but I want to be prepared. I have a feeling it will be vigorously contested. I'll take a book no doubt. But I just want to be as helpful as I can.

Uber,

Not sure what an OB is but good for you going to court what I forgot to say is do not feel intimidated by the court just tell your story the way it happened and do not feel intimidated btyany implication about you the defense may make the Jury will make up their own minds.

Zebs

Can you/will you go enjoy the sentencing???

Oof there are so many points here that I want to respond to, but no time:
suffice it to say, thanks so so much for all the good and nice things you've said: but *I *didn't see it through, the CPS did. I just made the complaint, gave a statement and turned up in court. I don't think I did anything that anyone else wouldn't have done.

And I am allowed to go to the sentencing but I won't bother. The police victim people will contact me to tell me what the outcome is and they will also apply for costs and compensation for me- I have been led to believe this will be about £50. But that's fine- it didn't cost me anything :)
I can also apply for £ to cover the time I had to take off work to attend the case (as I'm freelance this is relevant).

Uber,

Not sure what an OB is but good for you going to court what I forgot to say is do not feel intimidated by the court just tell your story the way it happened and do not feel intimidated btyany implication about you the defense may make the Jury will make up their own minds.

Zebs

The Old Bill.

BOOM!

"Did you order the code red?!?!"
"You're god damn right I did!!!"

She was questioning me not being in the cycle lane.
"Was there a cycle lane available to you?"
"Yes"
"Were you riding in it?"
"No"
"Are bike lanes not in place to ensure cyclists' safety?"
"No"
(shocked silence then change of subject)

Well done Katie! It's a shame he didn't get done for the driving offence. To my mind an appropriate sentence would be a few years driving ban and a community order. He has shown he's insufficiently responsible to drive a vehicle on public roads.

I have a similar case currently being worked on (at a glacial rate) by the Met, with the exciting addition that he drove his car into me and then refused to give me his name etc. I hope to report a success before the year is out...

Assault on cyclists by drivers is bad enough but for a guy to assault a female cyclist is very low in my books and shameful behaviour. no excuse for that sort of thing.

Why's it worse because I'm female?

Why's it worse because I'm female?

Because men shouldn't hit women.
Oneday he'll do it to a male cyclist, who would probably give him a slap.

Why's it worse because I'm female?

Because men shouldn't hit women.
Oneday he'll do it to a male cyclist, who would probably give him a slap.

How about PEOPLE shouldnt hit PEOPLE? "Men shouldn't hit women" is a phrase best left in the 1800's. Most women I know are, I'm sure, more than capable of defending themselves.

Jimbojones - is it because they're all pretty, weak and helpless?

I don't want to cause offence but IMO a man who hits a woman is worse than a man who hits a man. Just my opinion.

Nobody should hit anyone. Bullies usually pick fights they think they'll win. My view's based upon the generalization that women are smaller & less muscular than men. Like all generalizations, there are exceptions. I think it's immoral to hit someone who is usually smaller, weaker and cannot defend themselves as a stronger person can. I was going to use an analogy of hitting a horse or a cat with a stick but that's a muddled comparison and in fact I think I'd better leave it there.

I don't want to cause offence but IMO a man who hits a woman is worse than a man who hits a man. Just my opinion.
With Spindrift on this one, even if holding that opinion is deemed only slightly better than actually beating women oneself.

That said, personal circumstances presumably inform opinion as, completely contrary to HÏnáta's experience, most of the women I know (and most of the blokes for that matter) are NOT more than capable of defending themselves from a real determined physical assault by someone who knows what they are doing. Even if they might like to think so.

Well done KC (and CPS). Glad something happened and that he will be punished. I've been involved in an incident (not violent thankfully) but nothing was done and that made me feel unexpectedly angry. I hope this helps you put it all behind you

What? How did this thread turn into this? Not hitting women is just a way of justifying hitting men! All hitting is wrong.

Unless you see a pretty ass and say 'I'm gonna hit that'. Thats bad too, but not as bad. I think?

and well done Katie-Coo for the smackdown on his Barrister. Pow

a person is entitled to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, and our adversarial system requires evidence to be tested and challenged before it is found to be truthful. if *you *were ever falsely accused of a crime (and trust me it does happen more than you would imagine) you would want a robust barrister to test and challenge the evidence called against you.

and consider what it is like for a person wrongly accused having to sit through a police interview being accused of lying, and then being charged and perhaps held in custody until trial, and then being questioned by a robust, challenging prosecutor accusing them of lying etc...because it cuts both ways.

I don't really have anything to say that hasn't been said already, and certainly nothing to add to the strangely posturing discussion on which gender is allowed to assault which, but I would like to add my admiration of Katie.

It still might be interesting to go to the sentencing as I believe you often find out if he has previous. Maybe I'm being a bit ghoulish but in your position I'd like to know a bit more about who my assailant really was.

Well I never. Same thing just nearly happened again. This time my hand gesture was simply a wave past. Also small black car, also young man driving with girlfriend/young woman on passenger seat. Didn't manage to get me to stop though. I just bleated something ridiculous like 'cycling safely". Hmm.