April 26, 2010

City sick of violence, judge tells road-rager

A second nasty road-rage incident has brought a big bill and community work for Samuel Jeffery Bryant as well as a warning that the courts may not be so lenient if he does it again.

The 23-year-old has now sold the car that he was so passionate and obsessive about and Christchurch District Court Judge Jane Farish said this morning that he should also sell his number plate as well.

She did not say what the plate was, but she told Bryant: ?The number plate does not do you any favours, and it attracts attention. It?s time you grew up.?

Bryant had pleaded guilty part way through his trial to a charge of assault with intent to injure.

He was a passenger in his car on November 1, 2008, when he had some misconception about another man?s driving.

When the other car stopped at a round-about, Bryant got out, ran to the other car and assaulted the middle-aged driver in front of his wife, child, and another passenger. He punched him in the head.

?Quite frankly, your behaviour that night was appalling,? said the judge. ?It was totally gratuitous violence at a level that this city is quite frankly sick of.?

She noted that two months after this incident, Bryant was convicted of assaulting a pedestrian who walked in front of his car. The victim of that assault was bashed unconscious and left lying on the footpath.

Bryant, who works installing television reception dishes, has been through a restorative justice conference where he has met his victim, who was in court for today?s sentencing.

?There needs to be a short term of community work just to bring it home to you that there are serious penalties and repercussions,? the judge told Bryant.

She imposed 80 hours of community work and ordered him to pay $1200 to the victim as emotional harm reparations, at a rate of $100 a week.

She warned that the courts would not look at Bryant so leniently if he offended again. He would be regarded as a man who could not control his anger.