Plumber to pay up for tackle on triathlete

A PLUMBER who rugby-tackled a professional triathlete from her bike in a road-rage row has avoided jail.

Martyn Lee, 46, was ordered to pay 38-year-old athlete Caroline Livesey £5,000 in compensation for the physical and mental injuries she suffered.

York Crown Court yesterday heard Lee had allowed his “rage and anger to boil over” and rugbytackled Mrs Livesey from the seat of her bike on May 11 this year.

Lee had become vexed after being undertaken by Mrs Livesey after she had swerved to avoid a dog which ran into the road, the court heard. This meant Lee then had to swerve around her into on-coming traffic. He then drove further up the road, jumped out of his van and unseated Mrs Livesey from her bicycle as she passed through Pateley Bridge on Low Wath Road. She suffered a fracture in the inner-pelvic area of her spine and cuts and bruises to her lower back and head.

Prosecutor Martin Robertshaw told the court Lee had made frank submissions at the scene and told Mrs Livesey “he thought she was a bloke”. The injuries she endured forced her off the road for four months and, when she got back in the saddle, she said “she was not back to her best”.

Ayisha Smart, defending Lee, said the defendant “was disgusted with himself ”.

Lee, of Lofthouse, near Harrogate, received a six-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months, and a community order.