Motorcyclist battered car driver in city road rage attack

[dutchman]

Marcin Wadowski launched the attack in front of the victim's partner and granddaughter



A motorcyclist pummelled a car driver unconscious during a road-rage attack in front of the victim’s partner and granddaughter.

But Marcin Wadowski escaped being jailed after a judge at Warwick Crown Court heard that the other man struck the first blow by hitting or pushing him in the face.

Wadowski, aged 37, of Eagle Street, Foleshill, was given an 18-month community order, with a 20-day rehabilitation activity, and ordered to do 140 hours of unpaid work after he pleaded guilty to the assault.

Sentencing Wadowski, Recorder Lance Ashworth QC told him: “You got into an altercation with the driver of a car.

“As to what happened before the altercation, there are differing views.

“You claim he was driving badly, and he says you were driving badly.

“He pulled off the road into a side-road and pulled over, and rather than simply driving on, you followed him and stopped your bike to talk to him.

“In fact he approaches you first.

“We don’t know what you’ve been saying to him, but he appears to make the first shove which is sufficient for you to come off or step away from your bike.

“What follows is pushing and shoving and a punch by you. Had it stopped there, that might have been merely self-defence.

“But what we can see is that you punch him and he falls to the floor, and you don’t leave it there but punch him a number of times afterwards.

“It is not possible to tell how many, but it appears to be something like six further punches, and he was left unconscious and suffered a split upper lip.

“This attack happened in front of his partner and, more significantly, his granddaughter, and you were wearing motorcycle gloves with reinforced knuckles.

“It is very close to a custodial sentence.

“However, this is the first conviction you have had. You are otherwise a man of good character who works hard. It is an offence which I believe is out of character.”