Road rage thug locked up for horrific attack on window cleaner in Mansfield

Timothy Knight stopped his car on White Hart Street, when the man said: "Slow down, it's not a race track - it's the town centre", at 7.15am, on February 21.

Nottingham Crown Court was shown CCTV of Knight jumping out of his car and punching the man in the face, leaving him needing 14 stitches to his nose.

Prosecutor Lauren Butts said Knight denied the offence in police interview, saying that his victim threatened him and he was acting in self-defence.

Judge Stuart Rafferty QC called this "arrant nonsense."

The court heard Knight had 21 previous convictions for 87 offences.

In 2004 he was convicted of kicking a woman and grabbing her by the throat, and in 2011 he was jailed for 42 months for biting his victim's ear.

At the time of the attack he was on police bail for two offences.

Five days before the attack he had been involved in a road traffic accident, and was banned for drink driving on March 12.

Jasmine Kumar, mitigating, said Knight had been accused of rape on New Year's Day, and suffered threats, because the allegation was repeated on social media, until he was exonerated in May.

She said Knight had worked as an HGV driver after his release from prison, until he was banned for drink driving, and it was while he was "without work or any stability that he resorted to the behaviour he did."

She said he had been working part-time at B&Q in Sutton , and getting his life back on track.

The judge told him: "I hope that viewing the footage made you feel as disgusted as any reasonable member of the public would, seeing how you behaved.

"You were exceeding the speed limit. You didn't have to get out of your car for any reason at all, but you did.

"Road rage is becoming more and more common in this country, I am afraid, highlighted recently by the parole of Kenneth Noyes, who killed someone.

"Your driving record has been appalling, your use of violence has been indiscriminate. You had been involved in a drunken collision and were on bail."

He conceded that the rape allegation would have put pressure on Knight, and gave him credit for his early guilty plea.

Knight, 35, of King Street, Mansfield Woodhouse, who admitted the assault when he appeared at Mansfield Magistrates Court, on May 23, received 20 months in prison.