Judicial pretrial set in cyclist beating case

A judicial pre-trial has been scheduled in the case of an Inglewood Road man charged after a 71-yearold cyclist was beaten with a small club on Erskine Ave. on July 18, 2017 in an altercation captured in a dramatic video that went viral.

David Fox, 65, faces charges of aggravated assault and assault with a weapon.

His case was briefly addressed Wednesday morning before Justice of the Peace Jason Mariasine in Peterborough Ontario Court of Justice and adjourned until April 19, when lawyers will meet before a judge to narrow the scope of the case and vet legal issues, behind closed doors.

The accused, who is being represented by Toronto-area defence lawyer John Whelton, was not present as the matter was prosecuted by assistant Crown attorney Sam Humphrey. Fox was also not on hand when the case was heard Aug. 24, Sept. 22, Oct. 18, Nov. 15 and Jan. 10.

A 71-year-old man was riding his bike when he and a pickup truck driver began arguing. It’s alleged that the driver hit the cyclist several times with a small fish club, city police said. People nearby intervened and the driver left the area in his truck.

Paramedics treated the cyclist and took him to hospital as police sought a suspect. A man was located just after noon at his home.

The operator of a nearby business shot video that went viral.

“Hey, listen. I’m filming all of this,” the woman says as she approached the scene.

After asking if the man on the ground is OK, she turned to the man with a fish bat in his hand and said, “You just hit him with a club.”

“I tried to walk away,” the man responded as he put the club in his pocket and walked back to his truck and got in.

Fox’s wife Sandra went public last August, telling a Toronto Star reporter that the altercation was “not what it looks like at all ... All everybody caught was the last two minutes of it, not how it started or why it started.”