She was made to pay £25 compensation to cover his dry cleaning bill after admitting assault by beating on September 12, and given a one-year conditional discharge. Reading from a statement by victim Michael Ramage, a fellow of Sidney Sussex College, prosecutor Paul Brown told the court Currall then taunted the senior architecture lecturer, telling him to “go cry to your mummy” and calling him a “big bully”. After the hearing Mr Ramage, a 40-year-old American, said the faeces attack was “pretty unpleasant” and said he dreaded crossing paths with her after several encounters.
He said: “I would not change my route, but I do go down there with a lot of trepidation. I’m not physically intimidated, I know I won’t suffer any serious injury, but the mental anguish with having to deal with an encounter, that’s what it’s really all about. I have encountered her with my kids and it’s upsetting for them.” Of the sentence, he said: “Hopefully it will mean something to her and change her behaviour so I think I’m happy from that point of view.” The path where the incident happened is dual use, so is shared by both pedestrians and cyclists.
Monica Lentin, mitigating, said Currall, who lives in Trumpington, “felt anxious” walking along the path because of cyclists speeding past and that she was “provoked” by Mr Ramage, who lives in the same village, because he got too close. She said: “I think many people who are pedestrians in Cambridge would agree that having cyclists and pedestrians together doesn’t work.” As well as the conditional discharge and compensation order Currall, who has no previous convictions but two cautions for common assault and criminal damage from 2007, was told to pay £100 costs.
2 comments:
I don't know about Cambridge, but here in Torrance, California it's illegal to ride a bike on the sidewalk. However, people do it all the time. It's really scary when they come up behind me while I'm walking, with no notice, no noise, nothing. Fortunately, I have not been knocked down--yet.
If you keep your line, and don't carry on, the cyclist has scoped you and isn't going to hit you. I get that it can give you a fright, but they don't want to hit you, and they're on the lookout. Here in Australia, we also have some shared cycleway/paths, and the problem is usually the walkers in the cycle path than the other way around. And the umbrage they take! Good grief.
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