Road rage driver filmed screaming abuse at woman faces jail sentence

A road rage driver who was filmed screaming abuse at a female motorist after she beeped at him for cutting her off is facing a potential jail sentence.

Peter Abbott got out of his car and approached Samantha Isaacs’s vehicle after the minor incident outside a Tesco petrol station.

A terrified Mrs Isaacs, who runs a TV production company and has worked with the Prince of Wales and Alan Titchmarsh, locked her doors and began filming Abbott.

The 60-year-old banged on her windscreen with his fists before unleashing a foul-mouthed tirade.

He shouted at her “can you f---ing see me you f---ing tart?” He then called her a “slag” and a “whore” and put his head up against the windscreen.

A male motorist went to intervene and called Abbott a bully. The driver told Abbott “what is wrong with you, it’s a woman on her own”, to which he replied “she’s a f---ing bloody annoying woman”.

The footage was shown at Poole magistrates’ court in Dorset where Abbott went on trial for using threatening words or behaviour to cause alarm, distress or fear of violence.

He denied the offence, saying “it’s not against the law to be angry” but was found guilty by the court.

Sentencing was adjourned for reports but a district judge warned Abbott that he may go to jail as it was the “most serious” of this type of offence.

Afterwards Mrs Isaacs, who is aged in her late 50s, said: “He’s a horrible man and a bully. I didn’t want it to go this far, I just don’t want him to do it to anyone else.”

The road rage incident happened on August 25 last year when Mrs Isaacs was leaving the petrol station at Tesco Extra in Bournemouth, Dorset, just before lunchtime and Abbott, who had been shopping in the main store, pulled out in front of her.

The mother of three told the court: “I had just pulled out and a car came out of the shopping area and completely cut me up to the point where I had to slam on my brakes so hard all my belongings came off the passenger seat onto the floor.

“I beeped my horn as if to say ‘look out’ type of thing. He turned round in the car and started gesticulating, then he got out of the car and started shouting at me.

“He said what did I think I was doing and started hitting my car and calling me a lot of names like f---ing slag and whore.

“He was banging with both his fists on the windscreen and my door. I was frightened so I started videoing it.

“I wanted to show him I was recording everything to make him stop. I had locked my doors, I wasn’t getting out of my car.

“I didn’t think he was going to kill me or anything but this was escalating and I wanted to have it on camera. I felt unsafe.

“I would have thought after it being such a long time ago I would be okay, but it’s still not very nice to watch [the video].

“He drove out into the road and stopped the car again. When we turned left at the traffic lights he stopped the car again. I overtook him and then realised how stupid it was because I realised that meant he was following me. That’s when I phoned the police.”

District judge Orla Austin asked Mrs Isaacs what the long-term impact had been. She said: “Whenever I am in the car on my own I always keep the doors locked, I have made sure my dashcam works.

“I work in television, predominantly in London, and my daughter has had to take on more of my work because I don’t want to drive.

“Everyone seems to be so aggressive on the roads these days, I don’t want to be put in this position again.”

The court heard Abbott was identified as the registered keeper of the vehicle involved in the incident and was interviewed by police in October.

He told the court: “The origin of this incident was the behaviour of the witness. Despite what she has said on oath in this court, she didn’t just sound her horn once, she sounded it several times and flashed her lights, which I deem road rage.

“I believed there was enough space so I pulled out. I looked at her in my rear view mirror, she was flashing her lights and sounding her horn and making a rude gesture at me.

“Rightly or wrongly I am the type of person if someone behaves like that to me I will want to say something, I will call them out on it. I will do it with anyone, whatever gender, size or age they are.

“I do not like people filming other people without their permission, I think it’s a violation of their privacy.

‘It was a goading laugh’

“The reason why the incident didn’t just stop there is that I didn’t see any distress whatsoever. What I saw was her laughing at me and filming me after I asked her to stop. It was not a nervous laugh, it was a goading laugh.

“Anger is not a rational function. I regret my behaviour but there’s a number of statements I contest.”

Shami Duggal, prosecuting, said: “In the footage you were being extremely verbally abusive, threatening and intimidating.

“That wasn’t reasonable behaviour was it?”

Abbott replied: “No, I would agree, but it wasn’t without cause. It’s not against the law to be angry.”

Judge Orla Austin said she found Mrs Isaacs an “entirely credible witness” and found Abbott guilty.

She said: “It is very clear to me from the footage that he was banging on her car. The level of anger was extremely high.

“I don’t believe you, I find you did all those things and were entirely threatening. The anger was out of all proportion to the incident.

“Your intention was to cause her harassment, alarm and distress. She was on her own, you repeatedly targeted her, it was sustained abuse and had a significant effect on her.”

She warned Abbott, of Bournemouth, that he faces imprisonment as the incident was the “most serious” of this type of offence and he had put the victim through a trial despite “overwhelming evidence”.

Sentencing was adjourned until later this month for probation to assess Abbott.