Driver jailed for spraying wood lacquer in man's eyes...

The victim fears he may have to give up driving due to damage to his eyes



A man in his 60s had wood lacquer sprayed in his face in an "exceptionally wicked and vicious" road rage attack.

The victim was still suffering from ‘misty’ vision a year after the attack by Gualtiero Scarpellino, from Coventry, who was told by a judge that his crime was too serious for anything other than an immediate prison sentence.

Scarpellino, 52, of Siddeley Avenue, Stoke, Coventry, was jailed for 21 months after he pleaded guilty at Warwick Crown Court to assaulting his victim causing actual bodily harm.

Judge Peter Cooke pointed out that although he had no convictions for violence, he had police cautions for assault and for threatening behaviour.

Jailing Scarpellino, Judge Cooke told him: “Every day a good proportion of the population get into their cars, and with great frequency we encounter behaviour from other drivers we are not happy with, and sometimes we are the people who make the mistakes and find ourselves being beeped at by others.

“It is part of daily life and should not end in anything more than a brief display of ill-temper.

“It should certainly not result in the pursuit of another driver and the launching of an attack on him.

“This is a serious level of harm. Mr Jones had his vision still affected on a daily basis a year after you sprayed that lacquer into his eyes.

“To spray wood lacquer when it is directed deliberately and purposefully into a person’s face for a protracted period was an exceptionally wicked and vicious thing to do.

“No-one can spray something like that into someone’s eyes without knowing they were putting that person’s eyes at risk of permanent damage.

“It was not just, as you suggested, a panicked overreaction. He was a man of retirement age, of medium build. You were in no danger from him.

“It is shocking that it took until May of this year for you to be charged. There can be no excuse for such a delay.

“But road rage is appalling and it needs to be dealt with robustly. This demands immediate custody.”