A driver has been told to prepare for jail after a jury convicted him of offences involving a pedestrian.

The jurors heard how Ian Shields, 37, tried to get the pedestrian to drop charges two days before the victim was due to attend a police identity procedure.

The pedestrian had suffered a broken nose, a broken eye socket and damaged hands when the two had encountered each other the previous month.

After hearing from both men, the jury convicted Shields of causing actual bodily harm and witness intimidation after three hours in retirement at York Crown Court.  

They acquitted him of causing grievous bodily harm to the pedestrian.

Shields, of Gascoigne Walk, off Scarcroft Road, York, had denied all three charges.

The Recorder of York, Judge Sean Morris, adjourned sentence while a probation officer prepares a report on Shields.

The judge told him: “These are very serious matters indeed. You have some time to get your affairs in order.”

After Shields had left the court dock, he told the jury: “A prison sentence will follow.”

Shields was released on bail. He will return to court on November 8 to learn his sentence.

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The jurors heard how Shields was in his car as the pedestrian crossed the road by the BNT shop in Bishopthorpe Road on April 26 last year as children were leaving a nearby school at the end of the school day.

The pedestrian told the jury he just looked at the car to make sure which way it was going. Shields alleged the pedestrian used a racist term towards him, which the pedestrian denied.

The pedestrian said Shields got out of his car and ran after him. He claimed Shields then made an unprovoked attack concluding with the words: “That’s what you get for looking at me.”

Shields claimed he thought the pedestrian was a man called "Chris" who had made problems for his family before, accused the pedestrian of going into a boxing stance and claimed he assaulted him in self-defence.

Doctors at York Hospital later treated the pedestrian for a broken nose and a broken eye socket.

On May 13,  the pedestrian was again walking in the area, when Shields drove past with a passenger. The passenger got out of the car and went up to the pedestrian, telling him to  drop the charges against Shields, whom he described as “my mate in the car”.

The pedestrian identified Shields as the man who had attacked him in April at the identity procedure a couple of days later. Shields was charged and prosecuted.