Road rage driver who attacked cyclist and fractured his skull escapes prison

Police tape — (Image credit: Getty Images)

A car driver who left his vehicle and violently threw a cyclist to the ground after an altercation in Edinburgh two years ago, a "violent and unprovoked attack" that resulted the bike rider sustaining a fractured skull and bleed on the brain, has avoided a prison sentence.

Disturbing footage of Joseph Hedley, 39, grabbing 34-year-old cyclist Iain Brow by the throat and physically assaulting him in Edinburgh's Cowgate area on 20 September 2024 was widely shared on social media, resulting in a police appeal and a public outcry. This eventually led to Hedley turning himself in.

In an earlier hearing – during which Hedley admitted assaulting the victim to his severe injury, permanent impairment and to the danger of his life – Edinburgh Sheriff Court was told that Brown lost consciousness in the immediate aftermath of the attack, and he had to be rushed to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh.

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During this week's hearing, as reported on the BBC and elsewhere, Fiscal Depute Peter Finnon explained that the cyclist had suffered serious injuries – including an acute bleed on the brain, a traumatic brain injury and a fractured skull – and that the medics who attended the scene and treated him described his injuries to be "very much to the potential of danger to Mr Brown's life".

Speaking to STV journalists after the hearing, Hedley claimed to be sorry for actions, but then shrugged his shoulders and said: “He was blocking my way so I had to move him.” He subsequently added: “I didn’t leave him for dead. He was kicking off."

“You broke his skull and drove away,” the reporter says, to which Hedley simply replied: “Yeah but that doesn’t matter.”

The defendant's lawyer, Calum Turner, said Hedley had "not intended" to inflict serious injury on the cyclist, and that he had not driven since the incident. It was claimed that Brown had shouted at the and shone a bike light into the car, causing Hedley's partner, who was in the passenger seat, to suffer a "seizure".

When handing down the sentence, Sheriff Fergus Thomson told the defendant he had inflicted "significant injuries", and explained that he was avoiding a custodial sentence "by the narrowest of margins".

Instead Hedley received a two-year supervision order, and he will also be tagged and given a 12-month overnight home curfew, meaning he can't leave his place of residence between 7pm and 7am for the next year.

Faith Currie, Procurator Fiscal for Edinburgh, Lothian and Borders, said: "This was a violent, sustained and unprovoked assault on an innocent member of the public who suffered serious injuries.

"The actions of Joseph Hedley were horrific and shocking and could easily have had more devastating consequences."

Having recently clipped in as News & Features Writer for Cycling Weekly, Pat has spent decades in the saddle of road, gravel and mountain bikes pursuing interesting stories. En route he has ridden across Australia's Great Dividing Range, pedalled the Pirinexus route around the Catalan Pyrenees, raced through the Norwegian mountains with 17,000 other competitors during the Birkebeinerrittet, fatbiked along the coast of Wales, explored the trails of the Canadian Yukon under the midnight sun and spent umpteen happy hours bikepacking and cycle-touring the lost lanes and hidden bridleways of the Peak District, Exmoor, Dartmoor, North Yorkshire and Scotland. He worked for Lonely Planet for 15 years as a writer and editor, contributed to Epic Rides of the World and has authored several books.