Man convicted of assault after road rage and spitting incident

Elvis Williams was found guilty of actual bodily harm following an incident in November last year

A man has been convicted of assault after he punched a man to the ground following a road rage incident.

Elvis Williams, 56, of Dunbar Street, Belfast, appeared at Belfast Magistrates Court on Thursday, September 18, where he faced one charge of assault causing actual bodily harm following an incident on November 18, 2024.

The court heard that Williams and the injured party got into a verbal altercation over a driving dispute when Williams was alleged to have pulled out in front of another driver when attempting to move around a parked lorry.

The victim told the court that he had the right of way at the time and had been travelling at the speed limit when Williams pulled out in front of him, with Williams then “ranting and raving” at him and making threats to “cut his throat”.

He then admitted to spitting at Williams’ vehicle before parking his vehicle in order to remove his dashcam. He denied claims that he had spat at Williams. The victim says that as he was doing this, Williams turned his vehicle around and stopped his car close to the victim.

The victim told the court that he approached Williams’ vehicle in order to ask him about his driving and what he was doing and said that Williams then got out of his vehicle and appeared as though he was going to retrieve a weapon from it. At this moment the victim said that he “attempted to restrain” Williams before being punched a number of times and ending up on the floor “covered in blood”.

Footage of the incident was played to the court which showed Williams punching the victim during the physical altercation.

The victim said that he was taken to the hospital following the incident and reported it to the police the following day. He also had received a community resolution notice after telling police about the spitting incident.

Taking to the stand in his defence, Williams claimed that as he was attempting to move his vehicle around the parked lorry, the victim had sped up their vehicle towards him. He denied making any threats to kill the victim.

He said that the victim had “spat in his face” following their verbal altercation and he could “taste his spit in his mouth”. Williams said he was “going to leave it” but turned his vehicle around due to being spat at. He said that he would “rather be called a n***** than someone spit in my face”.

Williams denied punching the victim during the incident and maintained that he was only trying to defend himself, however the magistrate said this was “ignoring the evidence of our own eyes” as the footage of the incident showed him throwing punches.

Williams was questioned about why he did not contact the police following the incident and he said that “due to his past lifestyle” he would not normally involve the police in anything.

Convicting William on the charges, the magistrate said that the victim had “undoubtedly poor behaviour” during the incident and had displayed poor driving and a poor response to the altercation.

He also said that Williams’ testimony was “laughable” and had significantly contradicted the “evidence of our own eyes” and did not provide a reasonable excuse as to why he had not contacted the police following the incident if he had acted in self-defence.

Williams was convicted of ABH and is now due to appear in court again on October 30.

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