Road rage assault with ‘element of hate’ results in house arrest for Moncton-area senior | CBC News
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A judge sentenced a 79-year-old man from the Moncton area to 30 days of house arrest for a road-rage assault that included flicking blood on the victim and making a racist remark.
Lawrence Scott was found guilty earlier this year of assaulting Mohammed Benyoussef, who was driving with his family when it happened Aug. 29, 2021.
“His comments to them were totally inappropriate and unacceptable,” Moncton provincial court Judge Luc Labonté said Thursday as he sentenced Scott.
“Furthermore, the acts themselves were unacceptable and should not be tolerated by this court or by society.”
Benyoussef testified during the trial that he was driving with his wife and children along the Ammon Road toward Moncton when a truck driven by Scott pulled out onto the road in front of him.
Benyoussef said he passed on a solid yellow line to avoid crashing into the truck.
Scott testified he became enraged because someone else had died in the area doing the same thing. Scott said he then passed Benyoussef’s van, and they both then stopped in the middle of the road.
A video recording played at trial showed Scott approaching Benyoussef, saying “foreign c–ksucker” and then reaching through an open vehicle window to swipe at the phone recording the incident.
The two grappled through an open window, with Lawrence’s arm getting cut on the vehicle door. He twice flicked blood through the window at Benyoussef.
Crown prosecutor Clémence Talbot asked for a 30-day jail sentence, saying the judge should consider the “hate motivated” comments as an aggravating factor.
Featured VideoWARNING: Strong language. Mohammed Benyoussef says he was the target of road rage along Ammon Road in Moncton on Aug. 29.Benyoussef says the driver of a pickup truck forced him to come to an abrupt stop before getting out and attacking him as he sat in the driver’s seat of his minivan with his family.
Talbot said a conditional sentence order would also be an option given Scott’s age, followed by a period of probation. Such an order, known as house arrest, allows an offender to serve a jail sentence at home with restrictions.
Jason Dempsey, Scott’s lawyer, said the judge should impose the order instead of jail time because of Scott’s age and lack of a prior criminal record.
“It’s in no way to minimize the seriousness of the aggravating factors that [the Crown] alluded to,” Dempsey said. “You’re sentencing a person who perhaps comes from a time that he is not as progressive in his thinking as we would hope.”
Scott, given the chance to address the court before sentencing, said little.
“I don’t know if it would do any good,” Scott said.
“I appreciate your candour,” the judge said.
Labonté said he agreed with the Crown’s recommendation that jail time was appropriate to send a message.
‘Element of hate’
“Specifically for Mr. Scott, deterrence is important as well because, as I stated in my decision, the element of hate came in because he was dealing with people he thought were foreigners and people that were different than him,” Labonté said.
The judge said in Scott’s circumstances that the conditional sentence order would be imposed.
During his 30-day sentence, Scott must remain at home except for medical or legal appointments, to take part in any counselling, and will have four hours on Wednesday afternoons for personal matters like buying groceries.
The judge also ordered Scott to spend a year on supervised probation.
Benyoussef did not submit a victim impact statement and was not present at the sentencing hearing Thursday.
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