Driver to undergo anger management after road rage incident in Orby

Jacob Graham Orton, 25, of Bridge House Farm, Chatsworth, admitted assaulting Aaron Willis by beating and to using a vehicle without insurance or a full driving licence following the incident in Gunby Road, Orby near Skegness, when he appeared at Boston Magistrates Court.

Prosecuting, Dan Pietryka said that in the afternoon of October 6, van driver Aaron Willis completed a delivery and then left the village of Orby on a 30mph controlled road.

He said Orton, in an Audi TT car, came up behind him apparently wanting to overtake but, when he entered the 60mph zone, he accelerated but ‘heard a roar’ and saw the Audi overtake, swerve towards him as it did so and then, for no reason, slow down just a foot in front of his van and give him a ‘V sign’ out of his window.

Mr Pietryka said Mr Willis had to slam on his brakes and try to avoid the Audi but was unable to do so and clipped the wing of the Audi which then spun round and partly went into a ditch.

He said Mr Willis then went up to the Audi and asked Orton if he was OK but Orton hit him in the face ‘four or five times’ and shouted at him that he had tried ‘to kill my missus’.

He said Mr Willis collapsed onto the ground and then found Orton on top of him striking him several more times.

Mr Pietryka said Mr Willis suffered from pain in his jaw and headaches and had also lost his job because he had to take time off work.

In an interview with the police, Orton said the van had been swerving and braking and that when he overtook it, the van had swerved and he had pipped his horn and the van driver had given him ‘two fingers’.

He told officers he ‘did not remember what had happened’ after that until he ‘woke up’ with the van driver asking if he was OK.

Mitigating, Kirsten Collings said that ‘in reality the defendant has no recollection of the assault but when he got out of the car he believed that his partner was dead and there was a total loss of emotional control’.

She told the magistrates that Orton had passed his driving test but had never received his full driving licence and had not queried it.

She said his partner, whose car it was, had felt unwell and asked him to drive and they had not even considered if the insurance covered him.

After hearing from the Probation Service, the magistrates imposed a 12 months community order with a requirement to undergo an anger management course and undertake 20 days of rehabilitation.

He was also ordered to pay £200 compensation to Mr Willis and £170 in costs and charges. He was fined an additional £100 for the insurance offence.