A Cambridgeshire man has been found guilty of causing racially or religiously aggravated fear or provocation of violence following a road rage incident involving four American cyclists, two of them serving soldiers in the US Army. Despite admitting punching his victim repeatedly, Robert Steele, aged 47, was found not guilty of assault and possession of an offensive weapon.
The incident took place on 6 March on the B1040 at Papworth Everard when self-employed bricklayer Steele took issue with the quartet – Paul Shiefer, Brianna Huot, Refugio Lopez and Lance Harris – who all take part in triathlons, after they reportedly pulled out of the road in front of him, reports Cambridge News.
One member of the group, Mr Lopez, attracted particular attention from Steele because, as the driver himself admitted, “I thought Mr Lopez looked foreign and he is foreign. The others looked as English as I am, so I only said it to him.”
Although the accused denied the charges against him, according to a report of the court proceedings on Cambridge News, in his own testimony he not only admitted hitting Mr Lopez, but also punching him repeatedly.
Penny Cannon, speaking for the prosecution, told Steele: “Mr Lopez was a small chap with only cycling gear on. He could see you were angry and would have felt terrified. If you were in his position you would have been scared too.”
Steele claimed that Mr Lopez was headbutting him with his cycle helmet and admitted: “I gave him three upper cuts to his face while his head was down. I gave him a couple of whacks and he fell to the ground.”
He then retrieved some plastic piping from his van and waved it at the cyclists, shouting racial abuse at Mr Lopez and saying “I’m going to kill you.”
In Steele’s defence, Guy Holland said that the accused was suffering pressure due to one of his children suffering from cerebral palsy. He added: “Mr Steele is of good character and has never shown violence in the last 47 years.”
Steele was fined £300 and told to pay court costs of £215 as well as a £15 victim surcharge.
14 thoughts on “Cambridgeshire driver found guilty of racially abusing cyclist but escapes assault charge”
Now, if it had been Murdoch
Now, if it had been Murdoch on the bike???
Quote:Steele took issue with
In my experience, there are plenty of drivers for whom “pulling out in front of them” means exiting a side-road when they are within visual range, even if that is half a mile away, or more.
As for the outcome of the legal proceedings: unbelievable, as usual.
Mr Steele is of good
Obviously 8|
Check out some of the
Check out some of the enlightened views below the story on the Cambridge News site.
For those of you that can’t
For those of you that can’t be bothered to scrape that particular barrel, here are some highlights:
I can’t believe that four of
I can’t believe that four of them, two of them serving soldiers, couldn’t take care of him on their own !
dreamlx10 wrote:I can’t
Just because they are soldiers does not mean they can take out a bloke hell bent on violence with their bare hands !
Perhaps you should think before making such quotes ?
Yes, it is very tempting to
Yes, it is very tempting to wonder that but, as usual, the press won’t be telling the whole story so any speculation as to what actually happened remains mere conjecture.
dreamlx10 wrote:I can’t
It may well be that it was precisely because two WERE soldiers that they didn’t push home a four on one advantage.
Get in a fight with civilians and irrespective of whether or nor you were in the right, you’re possibly looking at charges being brought under army disciplinary procedures and at the very minimum you’ll have the regimental sergeant major (or US equivalent) put you through a good few laps of the drill square, probably while carrying your bike above your head.
Once saw a couple of Black Watch get back to barracks in Edinburgh very early in the morning, they’d obviously been in a fight. Four hours later, they were still running round the barracks carrying big heavy brass shell casings.
Simon_MacMichael
With him sitting on the bike i would imagine.
It’s quite laughable isn’t it? Read the piece again and omit they were on bicycles. I wonder what the charges would have been based on an assault which was racially motivated against serving servicemen. I can see The Daily Mail headline now
How on earth can you state in
How on earth can you state in court that you have punched someone multiple times, knocking them to the floor, and NOT have committed assault?! If I was looking for a definition of assault, I’d start with something like this.
Terrible decision by the
Terrible decision by the court. How his claim of self defence stod up when he had exited the vehicle to confront the group I don’t know. X(
As two of the cyclists were US Army, I hope their mates back at base don’t take the law into their own hands.
Sounds like a nice bloke.
Sounds like a nice bloke. Using his kid’s illness as an excuse is a particularly nice touch…
Quote:He then retrieved some
It gets better. Is it me or has the world gone mad