A car passenger has been sentenced after he injured a cyclist by pulling him off his bike in an “idiotic” assault.
Ashton Nutting the passenger in a car when the occupants shouted abuse at a cyclist as they overtook him on Monday, January 27 last year, Leicestershire Live reports.
Witnesses then saw Nutting lean his head and arm out of the window to grab the rider and pull him to the floor, leaving him with a broken elbow and hand fractures, Leicester Crown Court heard.
Sentencing judge Keith Raynor said: “This was an absolutely idiotic thing to do.
"You were a passenger in a car and he was on his bike.
"You grabbed hold of him on his bike and pulled him down to the floor, causing him to suffer significant injuries - a fractured elbow and two broken fingers.
"Cyclists are vulnerable in those circumstances and you left him in a real state afterwards."
The incident happened on the B5380 near Botcheston, Leicestershire in January last year at around 8.20am.
The occupants of the vehicle shouted abuse at the cyclist as they overtook him, as the rider then made a gesture with his right arm.
Nutting, 20, then leaned out the window and pulled the cyclist off his bike.
The rider spent five weeks in a cast, underwent physiotherapy for several months and was unable to drive or carry out other everyday activities.
At first Nutting, a bricklayer of Glaisdale Close, Beaumont Leys, Leicester admitted making contact with the cyclist but claimed he acted in self defence - he later pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm.
He was sentenced at Leicester Crown Court to six months in prison, suspended for 18 months, and was ordered to pay £1,500 compensation to the victim along with £200 towards the prosecution costs and a £122 victim surcharge.
The judge said he would not jail nutting because of the coronavirus restrictions in jail and because it was his first conviction.
