Driver accused of throwing rocks at passing vehicles

Jury told 37-year-old put drivers’ lives at risk

A delivery driver put the lives of passing motorists at risk as he threw rocks at their cars “seemingly for his own amusement”, a court heard.

Over an eight-month period, it is alleged Glynn Williams damaged 16 vehicles and injured two drivers in an area about 11 by 11 miles in the “high weald” of Kent covering Cranbrook, Benenden, Biddenden, Rolvenden, Goudhurst and Sandhurst.

A jury at Maidstone Crown Court was told that on each occasion 37-year-old Williams was delivering in the area for Dartford-based United Parcel Service (UPS) in a brown transit van.

“Our accusation against him is time and time again while doing his delivery driving in the TN17 and TN18 postcodes, he had the habit, for whatever reason, of throwing rocks at passing vehicles,” said prosecutor Alex Rooke.

“We are talking about 16 incidents. Two of those incidents, possibly three, led to injury. Only one was a static vehicle.”

Williams, of North Street, Dartford, denies 16 charges of damaging property being reckless as to whether life is endangered and two of assault causing actual One of the damaged windscreens bodily harm between January and August 2015.

Mr Rooke told the court: “This case is not so much about damage to property, it is about the risk to life and limb.

“In plain English, somebody who throws a rock into a windscreen of a car coming in the other direction is basically well aware they will damage that vehicle, and maybe intending to do it, but there is a more serious aspect about not giving a hoot about the blindingly obvious.

“If you throw a rock at somebody’s windscreen, they might swerve and hit a tree. Their life is endangered by somebody throwing these rocks. When they are doing this, they don’t care what the consequences are.”

Mr Rooke said the evidence against Williams was circumstantial. There were matters in common which cropped up.

“There came a point where there had been incidents of rock throwing in this area,” he said. “Put two and two together and make four and the identity of Glynn Williams came up.”

Photos were taken of him and he was identified as the UPS driver for those postcodes

“We have witnesses coming forward several months later,” said Mr Rooke. “They said they were driving past a brown vehicle and their windscreen was put in.

“There is a media appeal for people to come forward with their stories. There comes a point when lightning strikes too often in one place. We are looking at a large area.”

When arrested, Williams denied being the “UPS rock thrower” and claimed it was possible some local people had it in for him.

The prosecutor said it was interesting that Williams volunteered in interview that on 15 occasions he randomly found rocks in his vehicle.

He added he thought it might be local people putting the rocks in his van.“You may find that a bit strange, a bit of a red herring,” Mr Rooke told jurors.

The trial continues.