A cyclist who was chased and racially abused by an enraged driver in a terrifying road rage attack through a suburban neighbourhood has explained the reasons behind his “extraordinary” decision to forgive the motorist.

Earlier this month, cyclist Abdirashid Abdi, from Brisbane, Australia, urged judge Peter Callaghan to show leniency towards Shelley Anne Alabaster as she faced imprisonment at Brisbane Supreme Court for “turning her vehicle into a weapon” during the shocking, unprovoked chase.

At around 3.30am on 30 October 2021, Alabaster struck Abdi from behind with her Nissan Patrol SUV. After initially assuming that the collision was an accident, Abdi was then forced to flee on foot as the motorist – a complete stranger – began to pursue him, driving on the pavement and smashing through garden fences while hurling racist abuse at the cyclist.

In footage captured on Abdi’s GoPro, Alabaster can be heard, above her vehicle’s revving engine, shouting, “I’m gonna kill you bitch”, while Abdi tells witnesses “someone is trying to run me over” and “I’m dying, she’s going to kill me”, as he takes refuge in a neighbour’s front garden.

Alabaster was initially charged with attempted murder but later pleaded guilty to charges of dangerously operating a motor vehicle, threatening violence at night, and assault occasioning bodily harm while armed.

Defence barrister Jakub Lodziak said his client was remorseful and “embarrassed” and, while not drunk at the time of the incident, had been an alcoholic since her 20s and had suffered “trauma” growing up.

She was sentenced to three years in prison but immediately released on parole after the court heard Abdi’s impact statement which, remarkably, called for compassion towards his attacker, in what judge Peter Callaghan described as “one of the most extraordinary documents I’ve seen”.

While noting that “I am no longer the person I was prior to the incident” and that Alabaster had “transformed my life in the worst possible way”, Abdi nevertheless argued that prison is “not the right place” for the mother-of-three.

Addressing Alabaster in his victim statement, Abdi wrote: “I [am] pleading with you to take this opportunity to seek help and transform your life for better. I forgive you from the bottom of my heart and wish you the best in life.”

> Aussie road rage driver chased cyclist and smashed SUV through suburban fences

In an interview published earlier this week by Guardian Australia, Abdi explained the reasoning behind his remarkable call for leniency, though he admits that the trauma of his ordeal remains fresh.

“I was certain that day that I was going to die,” he said. “I’ve been reliving it every single day – it plays in my head in a loop. I can hear her voice. The red truck.”

However, the cyclist told the newspaper that he is more concerned with the impact the incident has had on Alabaster, and says that he rues the time she spent in prison away from her partner and children, who he describes as “innocent parties”.

Abdi is also concerned that the motorist, born in New Zealand, will be deported (according to government policy, New Zealanders who have been sentenced to at least a year in prison face deportation) and says that he is seeking to intervene with the immigration department on Alabaster’s behalf.

“That would be a travesty of justice,” Abdi says. “I choose to forgive her, because I believe compassion and forgiveness is justice in itself. It’s another form of justice.”

The cyclist, who fled war-torn Somalia as a teenager in the early 1990s, continued: “I don’t know if it is appropriate for me to say this, but in Australia they are obsessed with punishment. Crime and punishment.

“It emotionally fulfils our need of feeling safe, when you have someone sent to jail on your behalf, or the state avenges on your behalf, it gives you this emotional satisfaction.

“But, at the end of the day, nothing has been achieved.”

Abdi then said that the incident has prompted him to reflect on the circumstances that may lie behind violent attacks such as the one Alabaster inflicted upon him.

“That day she was going to run someone over, because she was in a dark tunnel,” he said. “I happened to appear in front of her. [But] she was just a conduit. What attacked me, or tried to run me over that day, was mental health and drug abuse. That’s how I see it.

“I knew for me to recover and move on, I will have to forgive her, and for her to get better, she would have to be forgiven.

“Compassion, forgiveness. It’s found in every human being.”