Driver’s jail time ratified

A DRIVER behind bars for assaulting a 67-year-old motorist after a dangerous game of highway leap frog south of Cairns has had his bid for freedom rejected.

Jason Bolton was jailed in the Cairns Magistrates Court for 12 months to be suspended after serving three months for a violent road rage episode on the Bruce Highway between Gordonvale and Deeral on November 6 last year.

He appealed the sentence of imprisonment in the Cairns District Court on the grounds it is “manifestly excessive” and that he should not serve any time in jail.

Between 6am and 6.30am, the 39-year-old had overtaken the vehicle of an older driver, who appeared to take offence.

“They proceeded to overtake each other’s vehicles, each slowing down in front of the other,” Judge Tracy Fantin said.

When the pair pulled over, at the older man’s request, Bolton armed himself with a wheel spanner and hit him several times on the arm, only stopping when a third person intervened. He then drove off.

He told police he had struck the man. He said he had believed the other man was armed with a box cutter or Stanley knife and wanted to disarm him. But he accepted during sentencing that he had been mistaken.

It was argued that the magistrate had failed to give specific regard to his family responsibilities, had erred in placing weight on certain prior comparative cases and that his family circumstances supported a non-custodial penalty.

Bolton had spent 48 days in custody at the time of the appeal and it was submitted he should be immediately released.

But Judge Fantin concluded that the magistrate had given “concise, but carefully considered sentencing remarks” and had taken into account all the circumstances, including pleas of guilty, limited and dated criminal history, co-operation, remorse and personal life.

“Exercising my own independent discretion I would have imposed the same sentence as the magistrate,” Judge Fantin said.

The appeal was dismissed.