Community service for man who broke driver’s face in road rage incident

Dublin People 25 Jun 2024

By Natasha Reid

A man has been given community service for breaking three bones in another driver’s face with a tyre iron during an incident of road rage in Dublin.

Graham Rosarius (45) with an address at Kilmahuddrick Road, Clondalkin, pleaded guilty to assault causing harm to Samson Samuel on September 15, 2021 at Finglas Road, Glasnevin. Rosarius had 11 previous convictions.

Dublin Circuit Criminal Court heard that Mr Samuel was driving with his partner on Prospect Road towards Glasnevin Cemetery that day. The delivery driver was on his way to collect donations for Oxfam Ireland, and indicated that he wanted to go straight ahead.

He told gardai that he saw a white van in the bus lane, and that the driver, Rosarius, looked agitated and made a gesture. When his vehicle stopped, Rosarius got out of the van and came towards him. Mr Samuel tried to wind up his window, but the defendant grabbed his t-shirt and tried to rip it.

Mr Samuel said the lights were still red, and he had nowhere to go. He said he stepped out of his car and asked the driver what was wrong. Rosarius then ran to his van, grabbed a tyre iron, ran back towards Mr Samuel and hit him over the head with it.

Emergency services were called, and Mr Samuel was taken to The Mater Hospital, where he was treated for three fractures to his face, including to his eye socket and nose. The former footballer can no longer play contact sports due to his injuries.

Rosarius was addicted to crack cocaine and heroin at the time and had taken methadone that morning, had hit rock bottom after this incident and had become suicidal. However, he had attended an addiction treatment programme, where he had been described as an ‘outstanding client’.

He had a regular income of €282, but brought €3,000 euro in compensation for the injured party.

Judge Dara Hayes noted that it was not uncommon for a driver to feel a touch aggrieved, ‘maybe to shake a fist, maybe to touch on the horn’.

“Had it stopped at that, no one would have been here,” he said.

“Getting a tyre iron and hitting Mr Samuel over the head with it is extremely serious,” he said. “People simply cannot behave like that on the roads.”

“It seems the attitude of drivers on the road have deteriorated over the years,” he said. “He took it a considerable degree further by producing a tyre iron and striking him with it, causing him injury.”

He said that the appropriate sentence would be two and a half years, but said he was impressed with where the defendant was now. He noted that he had made significant steps in his rehabilitation and was now at low risk of re-offending.

“He has put his life on the right track over last three years. It’s a serious offence but a custodial sentence is not warranted,” he said of the assault. “It’s a case in which his debt to society can be paid in a more constructive way.”

He imposed 240 hours of community service to be completed within two years. A second count of production of the tyre iron in the course of a dispute was taken into consideration.

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