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news
Statue of Justice, Old Bailey (licensed CC BY 2.0 on Flickr by Ronnie Macdonald).jpgJail for thug who repeatedly punched cyclist – then friended him on Facebook
A Northamptonshire man who repeatedly punched a cyclist and put him in a chokehold, then added him as a friend on Facebook once he realised that footage of the incident would be sent to police, has been sent to jail.
Danny Walsh, aged 26, was jailed for one year and nine months this week for grievous bodily harm following the incident in Burton Latimer on 16 July last year, reports the Northamptonshire Telegraph.
The victim, left unconscious following the attack, was taken to hospital to be treated for facial wounds and still suffers from anxiety.
Northampton Crown Court heard that the cyclist had been riding ahead of the vehicle Walsh was travelling in as a passenger when he swerved to avoid a cat in the road.
Walsh then made offensive gestures at the cyclist as the driver overtook him.
Matthew Rowcliffe, prosecuting, said that when the rider saw the car parked on the roadside shortly afterwards, he began recording video on his mobile phone.
He and Walsh had an argument, with the latter getting out of the vehicle and repeatedly punching the cyclist, as well as putting him in a chokehold and asking him why he “had to be a big man” by recording what was happening.
But when the cyclist told Walsh that the footage he was recording would be sent to police, his assailant’s demeanour changed.
Mr Rowcliffe told the court that Walsh “shook the victim's hand and apologised,” then “took off his shirt and tried to mop up the blood."
“He said he could add the victim on Facebook and that they were mate,.” Mr Rowcliffe added.
The court was told that Walsh subsequently friended the cyclist on Facebook, asking him why he had reported the incident to the police.
In mitigation and asking for a suspended sentence, Liam Muir told the court that Walsh – who has 14 previous convictions and is due to be sentenced on an unrelated matter next week – has mental health issues and had recently lost his job.
However, Judge Rupert Mayo said that he had “terrified the life out of” the victim, adding: “In my judgement this is a sentence that should not and cannot be suspended.”
The judge also imposed a restraining order on Walsh, preventing him from attempting to contact the victim.
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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29 comments
"“He said he could add the victim on Facebook and that they were mate,.” Mr Rowcliffe added. "
What kind of Stockholm Syndrome logic is that?
I don't understand - was he shaking the victim's hand while they were unconscious? Seems like there's some gaps in the reporting here.
Don't you remember when Failin' Grailing doored the poor cyclist, he shook him by the hand while he was dazed and confused. Made it alright then...
14 previous convictions? A year and nine months looks a bit light.
14 is actually quite low these days. We commonly deal with people with over 100 convictions and that doesn't affect the sentencing as much as you might think.
From our close pass operations we have found that the absolute worst drivers also happen to be actual criminals. Odd coincidence.
You mean to say there's a correlation between being having a total disregard for the law in a car and having a total disregard for the law outside of a car?
But how could that be?
The same thought did occur to me as I watched a drug dealer in a car with deliberately obscured plates, parked fully on the pavement, serve his customer. These "smoked plate" drivers actually advertise their disregard for the law, seemingly untroubled by the law.
100?? Where did they find the time??
Not inside, obviously enough.
Well we already have the highest prison population in western europe so the "bang up mentality" may play well for the tabloid readers but isnt doing a whole lot to reduce offending.
From my own contact with policing I get the feeling properly funded social and mental health services would probably be more effective.
I'm in agreement except where the individual is a risk to teh public. To me imprisonment should be a last resort, however in this case it seems we've reached that benchmark some time ago....
I'd agree with that. prison should be a much smaller population of people possibly there for a longer time.
Son of a friend was a prison officer and told me a problem for them was short term prisoners who couldnt be worked with and helped and probably left more likely to be a repeat offender.
One of the wife's child hood friends got sent to prison, for a non violent offence, was promptly raped and committed suicide. That said if your a violent person, or your actions are likely to cause physical harm, it's time to be locked up to protect others.
Well yes, but after that has already been tried 99 times, maybe on the 100th conviction it is time to try banging them up after all, if only to moderate their tempo.
Unfortunately Care in The Community inthe 80's (although could have been done alot better and mental health reform was drastically needed) and 10 years of Austerity now means alot less Social and Mental Health services around. And I expect Covid will bring more unemployment and more Austerity so even less is spent on things that will stop crime.
It seems that Mental Health Issues does seem to be the go to for Defence Mitigation these days though.
Considering the rime clear up rate is pretty low these crimals must either be
Prolific - 100 convictions being a small proportion of their crimes
Incompetent - easier to catch than the average criminal
Unlucky
probably not the third one
I think it's fairly common for criminals to ask for other offences to be taken into consideration - https://www.cps.gov.uk/legal-guidance/offences-be-taken-consideration-tics
So they commit a large number of crimes (e.g. theft / burglary) get convicted for a handful of them and then admit the rest of them to get a clean slate in return for a slightly longer sentence.
Because driving offences are not "actual crimes"?
Makes sense. We're only "witnesses to a crime" according to some police forces, even if we're the ones recording close passes, near misses, etc.
Short skirt syndrome.
There is probably quite a long list of things that constitute terrible driving without being actually illegal. Also ... I am pretty sure that you have to have an actual criminal record (i.e. conviction in a court of aw) to be officially considered a "criminal".
Hence, someone with a bunch of FPNs for terrible driving is not considered a criminal by the system in spite of their pattern of persistent law-breaking.
TBF ... that is the kind of distinction only a police office or other official might make, though.
There might be edge cases, but most "terrible driving" almost certainly would be offenses under the RTA 1988 - that's a pretty broad brush, and the lowest level is simply driving "without reasonable consideration for other persons using the road or place".
I'm not 100% sure but I think accepting a FPN requires admitting to an offense, and an offense is an offense whether you admit guilt by accepting a FPN or whether you are convicted by a jury in a high court. I think the view that road crimes aren't crimes is perpetuated by society (including, in some cases, the police) but has no basis in law.
liked, and your input is as ever on the button Inspector
I'll not be the only one here though to consider road crime as actual crime, and it has massively greater public fallout than many crimes that are dealt with more harshly.
Road criminals are real criminals
I know where you're coming from, but there's a problem when probably on the order of half the adult population (most drivers) are habitual criminals. Criminals should be a small fraction of the population, or you have the wrong laws, or something. See, for example, the prohibition experiment in the USA. Or even marijuana prohibition. This has to be dealt with more holistically.
We must be able to get to where speeding is seen as aberrant behavior, not just that of an average person who was unlucky enough to get caught. Right now I'd wager most people see cycling on the pavement as more criminal than speeding.
https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/7/24/understanding-the-85th-per...
I actually agree entirely. Policing is done best when it is done by the individual - "I'm not going to do that cos it's unacceptable (or it's not worth my while)". To get people to that state of mind really takes the long view, and your bullets above are all sound responses to the issue
to be clear, I don't necessarily believe that the best response to all crime is imprisonment or punitive measures, in fact, incarceration is usually counterproductive and causes more problems than it solves, but that's not to say that there shouldn't be suitable measures in its place that are known to be effective.
PS fascinating article, thanks
Better to have driver sin bin, rather than a totting up process
Offence 1 fine and warning
offence 2 one week ban
offence 3 one month ban
offence 4 six month ban
People will be more likely to adjust their behaviour when their dependance on the car is impacted.
The insurance companies crunched the numbers and figured this out some time ago. People with criminal records tend to have high rates of crashes and driving offences. So anyone with a criminal record will pay higher rates for vehicle insurance.
There is a correlation between criminal behaviour and poor driving, basically linked through risk taking behaviour. Criminals are often less risk averse and this manifests itself in the way they drive and their general approach to driving as a whole (often not taxing or insuring their vehicles).
As you appreciate from experience, cracking down on poor driving on the road also helps tackle additional criminal activity.
Yes, this is why it makes no sense to cut traffic police. If I was a criminal, I'd be super-careful to make sure that my Mot, VED, insurance etc was always up to date and drive an inconspicuous vehicle carefully, to avoid attracting the attention of the police.
However, it seems that most actual criminals are incredibly stupid and do the exact opposite. How often have cops stopping vehicles for traffic offences, led to discovery of drugs, weapons and stolen goods in those vehicles?
well the Norfolk/Suffolk roads police team have been running a number of operations on the roads just in the last couple of weeks that neatly prove that point
on one day of action in April, they stopped 70 vehicles & 63 TORs were issued.
the next week using a HGV tractor unit that they drive along the main trunk routes and can see into HGV cabs,and cars, they stopped 297 vehicles,and issued 356 TORs, some drivers for multiple offences.
then last week in another joint op with other forces, they stopped 117 vehicles, issued 100 TORs and made 5 arrests.
and you just have to think all of this is going on every day and most of the time the police arent running operations to catch any of it.