Suspended sentence for driver who tried to run cyclist off road…9 times

How bad does it have to get before a judge actually jails somebody for this behavior.
Assault or GBH suddenly seem to bring much more lenient sentencing if the offender is cocooned in a metal box with four wheels
Perhaps the Judge should face a charge of wasting Police time as this is effectively what he has done.

How do we get ridiculously light sentences like this appealed?

Given that the offence was committed against a local Police officer I would reckon that the offender will need to move a substantial distance from Lancashire to avoid having his future motoring VERY closely scrutinised. Local Police will doubtless soon work out which car(s) he uses and make sure that any fault in his driving gets a friendly reminder or appropriate warning.

I worked on the initial Police Bike programme locally (almost 15 years ago) and for better or worse am regularly recognised and acknowledged by local beat officers. Fortunately I 'normally' behave myself when cycling and driving.

How does a Judge get to sit on the bench in England? Surely there is some understanding of what is "Common Sense"?Crown Courts are where serious matters are dealt with, Slapping a "Murderous thug on the wrist " just does not count as justice!
The CPS should be appealing this sentence as inappropriate and seeing this thug gets a minimum of 5years in prison where he can learn that to steal candy from school kids gets a sensible sentence immediately!
The judge like so many of his colleagues would do well to live in the real world with contact with the victims of crime!
Road rage leads too often to murder and even minor injuries are too high a price to pay for being victimised by a "motorised imbecile".Cyclists and the media reporting their sport and activities need to work together month after month to "petition "for change! Vote the lazy Law makers out and replace them with people who are aware of Justice!Follow @skippydetour and Visit www.parrabuddy.blogspot.com where we can make a difference for "disabled sport" some of whom are the victims of this sort of injustice!

It's a pity his driving ban was not for longer. I too am disappointed that he did not at least serve a token week in prison to let him dwell on what he has done. The small consolation is that the next time he applies for car insurance, hopefully it will be so excessive that this lunatic will not be able to afford to drive any more.

the laws in this country are now such an ass with no common sense anywhere in the equation being shown by the assholes who sit on the various benches passing so called "judgement" on idiots like this .... it only ever gets worse in this damn country.

Thanks. I had read the article via RSS so missed the comments.

the comments in that copenhagenize article, that is

i'm not sure that's technically correct - see the comments below about how the danish system works, and most of europe is the same. there's a separate concept, independent of liability, at work here – operating risk – and *that's* what we need in the UK.

basically car drivers are insured against the fact that a car is dangerous, whether they drive it well or not. so if a car hits a cyclist, they can be awarded damages because cars are dangerous, not because they're assumed to not be at fault.

Very true Simon, let's not forget that if all drivers were like this kid this story wouldn't actually be news.

For an insight into what would've happened if he'd used a gun instead of a car in another part of the world check out the story from the US in the related stories box

I think I'm going to ahve to stop reading some of these news items, they're not helping my state of mind regarding the intentions of a proportion of road users.

However, I have to remind myself that the majority, in fact probably the vast majority are decent. Quite a few are even considerate. People like this are, after all, a tiny minority.

Since he is a teenager I'm inclined to hope that he will learn from the warning. But I blame his parents, they should be ashamed.

It just gets worse.
Honestly, what is the justice system coming to? CPS obsessed with putting costs and performance targets before justice; judges told not to send people to prison coz there's no room at the inn, etc.

It's enough to make you go out and buy the Daily Mail.

A couple of years ago I had 2 lads in a car who slapped my arse as they drove by. I went past them in a queue - then they went past and did it again. They thought that wasn't funny enough so they doubled back and did it a third time.
I don't know what makes these people tick - I could easily have gone under a wheel, especially as I was doing 20-25mph the first time.
I did report the incident to the police who followed it up and apparently they were apologetic and got an official caution - not much comfort to me, but maybe they'll think twice about doing it again.
If it happens - report it. Nothing will change if you don't.

"so what's the difference? "

Well unfortunatley we give people licences to handle/use these dangerous weapons (cars) and have created a law system around there use. I think becuase of this the courts compare this sort of attack with assault (ie, with fists), which is frequently seen by the court system as a lesser offence even though its just as likely to injure/kill someone as using a bat/gun/knife.

In offences such as these against cyclists, perhaps it would be a requirement for drivers to cycle a minimum of 1000 miles during the ban period and be able to verify this as a condition of their driving entitlement then being allowed again when the ban ends.

"On the first occasion, Harrison maintained that the cyclist had gestured at him"

Would it somehow have been less of a crime if the cyclist had gestured to the driver first?

When I'm cycling and drivers cut me up, overtake too close or generally make me feel like my life is in danger I let them know the only ways I can - by shouting or gesturing at them.

Is this provocation permitting them to threaten to run me off the road?

How else can I let drivers know?

Just been talking to Simon on this one, and he made the point that if you or I had reported such an incident with no witnesses would the case have even made it to court? I'd like to think it would, but hand on heart I can't be certain.

What is amazing is that once it got to court the sentence was so light it doesn't seem proportionate with the intent or the result - he did succeed in running Insp Melvin off the road and presumably for all he knew could've seriously injured him. As Amazon22 says if he had only threatened him with a gun or knife, let alone actually attacked him with one he'd be going down for a very much longer stretch indeed, so what's the difference?

When will the courts start using appropriate sentencing for offences such as these? An attempted assault with a deadly weapon would have been dealt with using a much heavier sentence. Why is a car weighing 1.5tonnes or so regarded as being less lethal than a heavy lump of wood, baseball bat or a cricket bat for instance? And I agree that had the victim not been a policeman, it's possible the sentence would've been lighter still or that it would never even have reached court.

No where near enough in terms of punishment!!

When will the courts realise that using a car to force a cyclist off the road is attempted murder; as the most probable consequence will be serious injury or worse? Failing that, what about assault with intent or assault with a deadly weapon?

Agree with jobysp, if the victim hadn't been a copper then they wouldn't have bothered pursuing it.

And his target was a copper.

He would have got away with no sentence at all had it been a regular joe riding a bike.

ffs - a suspended sentence? on what grounds exactly?

with amazon22 here - that's pretty piss-poor justice.

Poor show. The tone of the article is that the car driver got a lot more than expected, but frankly it's appalling how lightly he got off.

Had the victim been walking, and this jerk had walked up to him with a loaded shotgun (for that is what a vehicle is), pushed him over, shoved a gun in his face and screamed 'I will kill you', he would have had more than this slap on the wrists. Its no less than attempted murder. Lock him up, make an example and start getting the message out that cyclists are people too.