A Canberra cyclist who inflicted ''nasty injuries'' on a 76-year-old motorist last year escaped conviction yesterday after he was forgiven by his victim in an emotionally charged court hearing.
In an extraordinary scene at the ACT Magistrates Court yesterday afternoon, 65-year-old John Meadmore Symond and his victim, 76-year-old Edwin Diehm, both broke down in tears in front of Magistrate Karen Fryar.
Symond had pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm on Mr Diehm over the road rage incident in Dickson after Mr Diehm's car collided at low speed with Symond's bike at a pedestrian crossing on October 8 last year.
Symond admitted to punching the elderly driver twice in the face, opening up a serious cut on Mr Diehm's eye, after the motorist tried to stop him leaving the scene.
The cyclist, who is on a disability pension, said he was in ''flight or fight mode'' after Mr Diehm grabbed a bag from a basket on the front of the bike in an effort to detain Symond at the scene.
''I was defending my property,'' Symond told the court.
''I felt a threat and I lashed out.''
But Prosecutor Sian Jowitt was unconvinced. ''You felt threatened by the complainant, a 76-year-old man?''
Symond broke down as he told the court of his troubled early life and that he was the victim of childhood abuse while in residential care in Britain.
He spoke of his involvement with the Quaker church, the support he had received from the pacifist sect and his sense of shame that he had to admit to an act of violence.
Ms Fryar suggested that Symond should publicly seek his victim's forgiveness.
''Are you now prepared to turn around and face Mr Diehm and say you're sorry?'' Ms Fryar asked.
Symond turned to his victim in the court's public gallery and said he was sorry for the attack.
Mr Diehm, who was also in tears, crossed the court and took his attacker's hand. ''You're forgiven,'' he told Symond.
Ms Fryar described the scene as a ''significant demonstration'' of community justice. Though she found the charge proven, she said a conviction was not appropriate as Symond was a poor candidate for either general deterrence or personal deterrence. She placed him on a 12-month good behaviour order and imposed court costs and criminal injuries levy.
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