Man who drove around randomly throwing rocks at cars is spared jail

An eight-year-old girl suffered minor cuts after a rock was thrown at her dad's vehicle.

A driver who hurled rocks at nearly 100 vehicles during a two-week spree has been sentenced to a community order.

Aaron Hurley, 25, who has schizophrenia, kept a bag of stones in his vehicle as he drove around the Norfolk-Suffolk border looking for targets.

A dad who was driving with his eight-year-old daughter described hearing a ‘large bang’ before his windscreen shattered, with his child suffering ‘minor cuts to the face’.

Judge David Goodin said it was ‘remarkable’ nobody was killed as a result of Hurley’s actions.

Martin Ivory, prosecuting, told Monday’s hearing at Norwich Crown Court police examined Hurley’s car when he was arrested in June this year.

He said: ‘They found a “bag for life” that contained 19 stones of various different sizes.

‘It seemed fairly clear that what he was in the habit of doing during the period covered is he’s driving his motor vehicle along… and he would launch a stone out of his vehicle at other vehicles oncoming.

‘In many cases the stones strike the other vehicles. In many cases there was damage.’

Mr Ivory added £17,000 worth of damage was caused, based on information from 37 complainants, but the true total could be triple the amount stated.

Hurley, who lives with his aunt and uncle in Langley, Norfolk, admitted at earlier hearings to four counts of endangering road users and three counts of causing criminal damage in relation to incidents between May 25 and June 9 this year.

He asked for 86 further matters to be taken into consideration.

Gavin Cowe, mitigating, said the offending was a manifestation of the defendant’s schizophrenia, for which he is now receiving treatment.

He said Hurley has not been in trouble before.

Judge Goodin said: ‘It’s almost incredible that nobody was more seriously hurt than was actually the case from chucking hard missiles that ended up, as often as not, on someone’s windscreen, smashing them while travelling at 50 to 60mph,” he said.

He added: ‘It makes the blood run cold to think what it might have been.’

Judge Goodin sentenced Hurley to a three-year community order with a requirement to receive mental health treatment during this period.

He was also banned from driving for 12 months, ordered to pay an £85 victim surcharge and ordered to complete a 20-day rehabilitation activity requirement.