Saturday 1 January 2011

Contrast these two cases

A RENISHAW man has been jailed for six months for threatening a man with a sledgehammer in a road rage incident.

Joshua Denman, aged 25, of Field Avenue, pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm and possessing an offensive weapon.

Denman threatened his victim with a sledgehammer
and pushed him to the ground.

A very different result to this case:

he came up to me shouted something abusive about cyclists and pushed me hard so that I fell into the other side of the road and into the path of an oncoming car. I fell onto my right elbow and hip and saw the oncoming car braking hard and stopping around 18 inches from me.

The driver of this car was good enough to stop and leave her details and the police confirmed to me that she had provided a statement indicating that she had seen the assault on me and had to brake hard to avoid hitting me.

The Thames Valley Police investigated including spending 2 ½ hours with me taking a very detailed statement. I showed them where my right elbow was skinned and informed them of the bruising to my right hip. They suggested I went to a doctor which I did the following day. It is clear he did not consider my injuries insignificant and referred me for a hip X-ray.


And the result?

I have this evening received a telephone call from Thames Valley police informing me that a motorist who assaulted me and a friend last week is to be dealt with by way of a police caution.