Man jailed for racist road rage attack

Horncastle News | Thursday, 16 February 2012 | Click here for original article

A motorist who attacked and racially abused another driver during a road rage incident was jailed for six months at Lincoln Crown Court on Thursday.

John Eden-Smith reacted after being overtaken by his victim on the A153 near Coningsby.

Jonathan Straw, prosecuting, said that Eden-Smith followed the other man into the car park at Tattershall Lakes and confronted him.

Eden-Smith pushed and shoved the man calling him “a Paki” and suggesting he had a bomb in his car.

Mr Straw said “One way or another the complainant lost a tooth as a result of the incident.”

The victim, a Sikh businessman, managed to drive away and flagged down a passing police patrol car.

Eden-Smith, 33, of Field Road, Billinghay, admitted racially aggravated common assault as a result of the incident on 13 February 2010.

He also admitted a separate offence of production of cannabis after seven plants were found growing in an upstairs bedroom at the home of his estranged wife in Sherwood Avenue, Boston.

Eden-Smith said the plants were intended for their own use.

Judge Sean Morris told him “This was a nasty and unpleasant assault.

“I am quite satisfied there was a racial element.

“It shows how ridiculous it was when you realise that your victim was not even Pakistani in origin and he is as British as you are.

“Your victim is a slight, small man of quiet disposition. He was doing no more than going about his normal every day business.

“There was an altercation. He did not have a bleeding mouth and a missing tooth.

“After the altercation he did. If you had not acted as you did I am satisfied that this would not have happened.”

Neil Sands, defending, said that since the road rage incident Eden-Smith has been diagnosed with a condition that results in him suffering bouts of extreme blood pressure.

“It would appear that since the treatment began the behaviour of Mr Eden-Smith has altered.

“At the time of this Mr Eden-Smith was a man of good character. This sort of behaviour has not been repeated since.”