Elderly motorist attacked by road rage thug

A MOTORIST is facing jail after punching a pensioner who held him up while he read a road sign.

Stewart Hayes, 45, flew into a rage after 71-year-old Thomas Cremin stopped to check a sign on the rural road from Kilmahog to Brig o’ Turk in the Trossachs.

The car behind Mr Cremin also stopped and Hayes tried to drive past them both just as Mr Cremin, who was on a day out with passengers, began to move again, so Hayes had to swerve and stop. Hayes got out, pulled open Mr Cremin’s door, and began punching him.

Prosecutor Laura Knox said: “This was a road-rage incident. He was shouting and screaming that Mr Cremin had tried to run him off the road”.

Mr Cremin put his hands up to his face to protect himself, but Hayes grabbed both his thumbs and bent them backwards.

Mrs Knox said: “He was shouting that he was going to kill Mr Cremin.”

A couple in the car behind Mr Cremin came to help him, and other motorists also came to his aid and dragged Hayes off him.

Hayes was ushered back into his car by his wife, while “screaming that he would find out where Mr Cremin lived”. Witnesses took a photo of Hayes’ car, and he was later traced.

The attack occurred last October 27 after Mr Cremin paused to check details on a “road closed” sign.

At Stirling Sheriff Court, Hayes, of Kinlochard, Perthshire, pleaded guilty to assaulting Mr Cremin, of Stirling, to his injury.

Sheriff William Gilchrist ordered him to return for sentencing on March 6, when he could be jailed.