The man was not convicted in the district court, but he was found guilty in the court of appeal.
Court of Appeal of Turku. Ismo Pekkarinen
A woman’s first bicycle ride home from work in the spring ended in a fight, in which she injured herself after falling under her own electric bicycle in Turku in May 2022.
The woman said she was surprised when the cycling route turned into a narrow sidewalk. He was then stopped by an elderly man who announced that people over the age of 12 were not allowed to ride bikes on the sidewalk.
Shortly after this, the woman fell against the stairs and onto the door stop. He got stuck under his 27 kg bike and couldn’t get out on his own. He complained of pain when two people who came to the scene helped him out from under the bike.
The woman’s neck snapped and it was difficult for her to turn her head for two or three weeks. In addition, he had pain in his elbow, back and leg.
The bike had an electrical fault and wobbles, and one of the pedals broke. The glasses in the woman’s backpack broke when their case got stuck in the puddle.
The district court refused
The case was later discussed in court, when the prosecutor demanded that the man be sentenced for mild assault. According to the prosecutor and the woman, the man pushed the woman into the street.
The man denied it. He said that he had stopped a cyclist whose driving he described as speedy.
According to the man, after the stop, the woman pushed her bike towards him, causing him to touch the handlebars of the bike.
Suddenly the woman lost her balance and fell. The man considered it possible that the bicycle pedal might have hit the woman’s calf, causing her to fall.
In the opinion of the district court of Varsinais-Suomen, there was doubt about what exactly happened in the incident. The district court dismissed the charge of mild assault.
Stand firm
The prosecutor and the woman appealed the district court’s verdict to the Turku Court of Appeal.
In the court of appeals, the woman found it impossible that she would have fallen from a sturdy crotch position to the ground other than as a result of reaching for her hands.
The supportive standing position was also told by a witness, who also saw the man punch two women in the upper body. The same witness also reported the incident to the emergency center.
Unlike the district court, the court of appeal found the witness’s account reliable. In the district court’s opinion, the credibility of the report had been weakened by the fact that the witness had made his observations while driving a car.
The Court of Appeal of Turku sentenced a man born in 1942 to a 10-day fine for mild assault. The man had to pay 180 euros.
The court ordered the man to compensate the woman 1,000 euros for pain, stiffness and other temporary inconvenience, 480 euros for the repair costs of the bike and its depreciation, and 300 euros for the broken glasses and their case.
In addition, the man had to pay more than 4,800 euros of the woman’s court costs.
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