A man with a colourful criminal history was today jailed for 21 months after a road rage incident in 2011 during which he assaulted a bus driver and smashed the bus windscreen .

Mark Lawrence Rizzo, 50, from Fgura, was found guilty of assaulting driver John Abdilla in Paola on November 19, 2011.

Magistrate Neville Camilleri heard how a car driven by Mr Rizzo and the bus almost collided after Mr Rizzo suddenly drove out of a parking spot.

Mr Rizzo began hooting his horn and Mr Abdilla reacted with a rude gesture and drove off.

Mr Rizzo followed the bus and began offending the driver at the next bus stop.
Mr Abdilla got off the bus to try to calm the situation and Mr Rizzo also got out of his car.

Mr Rizzo began hitting the bus's windscreen with a wiper arm, damaging it.

He told the police during their investigations that he had reacted after his girlfriend had tried to speak to Mr Abdilla to tell him that she was pregnant and that there was a nine-month-old sick child in the car but he pushed her. 

Testifying in court, Mr Rizzo said that he had accidentally broken off the wiper after it caught his tracksuit and he feared that the driver was going to drive off with him still stuck there, a version that the court described as "untrue".

He later said that he had broken off the wiper when he saw the driver getting onto the bus, fearing that he had gone to fetch a weapon.

Magistrate Camilleri said he was not convinced with his explanations, and found Mr Rizzo  guilty of attacking the driver, causing €2,260 in damage to the windscreen and relapsing.

He jailed him for 21 months.

 

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