A cyclist lost his nose on a busy Canberra road after smashing into the rear windscreen of an enraged driver, who had "brake-checked" him in what a judge has labelled "an act of absolute stupidity".
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The driver, Nicholas Alexander Gordon, 25, drove off before returning to the scene on Athllon Drive and telling police he had done "something really stupid".
He avoided time behind bars in the ACT Supreme Court on Thursday, when Justice Michael Elkaim sentenced him to a three-year intensive correction order after he pleaded guilty to culpable driving causing grievous bodily harm.
In sentencing, Justice Elkaim said the incident in question had occurred in October 2020.
The victim, who had been travelling along Hindmarsh Drive in the cycling lane, moved close to one of the vehicle lanes to avoid some broken glass as Gordon's Holden Astra approached the rear of his bike.
"This raised the ire of [Gordon], who sounded his horn," Justice Elkaim said.
The victim responded by gesturing at Gordon in, as the judge put it, "a manner involving the projection of his middle finger".
The man continued on his ride to work but felt he was being targeted by Gordon, who kept speeding up and slowing down.
Once they turned onto Athllon Drive, where Gordon was driving in front of the cyclist, the 25-year-old applied the Astra's brakes.
"The impact caused the rear windshield glass to shatter entirely, damaged panels to the rear and to the roof of the vehicle, and broke the driver's side tail light," an agreed statement of facts says.
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"Body matter from the victim was deposited onto and inside the offender's vehicle."
The cyclist eventually pushed himself off the car and fell to the ground.
He then said words to the effect of: "You f---ing arsehole! F--- you! Why'd you do that for? You're a f---ing arsehole!"
The victim urged Gordon to call an ambulance, but the 25-year-old drove away without saying a word.
Another driver stopped to help the cyclist and called for assistance before Gordon came back.
Police spotted Gordon's damaged car and approached the 25-year-old, who told them he was "here to take responsibility, because I am stupid".
"[The cyclist] was weaving in and out of the lane ... and I got a little irritated," Gordon told officers.
"I beeped him. He stuck the finger up at me ... and I decided to try and teach him a lesson by brake-checking him."
Gordon denied intending to injure the cyclist, and Justice Elkaim accepted this.
The victim was taken from the scene to Canberra Hospital, where he underwent emergency surgery and spent the next six days.
The agreed facts list 10 injuries he was found to have suffered, including a broken and degloved nose, dental fractures and several lacerations.
"There are photographs of the injuries suffered by the victim," Justice Elkaim said. "They are horrendous."
The judge said the victim had also been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
On the other side of the coin was Gordon, described by the judge as "an otherwise decent person" who had seriously injured the victim in "a moment's act of deliberate stupidity".
Justice Elkaim said the 25-year-old had autism and was "an anxious person", who had completed an anger management course.
He noted Gordon was also eager to engage in a restorative justice process.
The judge said a pre-sentence report described Gordon as being a low risk of reoffending, and that risk could be dealt with by an intensive correction order.
Neither prosecutor Nathan Deakes nor defence lawyer Jonathan Cooper argued against this.
Justice Elkaim stressed there were "very good reasons why a term of full-time imprisonment should be avoided for this offender", reciting graphic details of Gordon's troubled childhood.
"It should not be thought that I am in any way excusing the offender's conduct by not imposing full-time imprisonment," the judge said.
In addition to the intensive correction order, Gordon was disqualified from driving for the next year.
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