gair rhydd y Monday March 9th 2015 | freeword | Issue 1047
In this week’s issue: What it’s like to be engaged at university, where parties stand on devolution in Wales, why Ketamine is your friend, and the return of the Green Party society
Student “could have been killed” in attack
t Police appeal for information after “aggressive” driver attempted to hit pedestrian t Victim might have been mistaken for a member of the armed forces EXCLUSIVE Michael O’ConnellDavidson
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olice are appealing for information after an attempted assault on Lowther Road last Saturday. Cardiff University student Duncan Leigh was walking home from the Students’ Union when it appeared that a vehicle was driven directly towards him in an attempt to hit him. Leigh was wearing military surplus gear as part of an Airsoft event he had attended that evening, and it is thought that this may have made him a target. The incident took place on 28 February at around 21:00, shortly after the event ended. Speaking to Gair Rhydd, Leigh said that there was a moment where
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he genuinely believed that he might have been killed: “For a split second, I thought, fuck, there’s nothing I can do, and that it could have been the end.” He was spared when the driver swerved away to avoid an oncoming car. Witnesses have claimed that there was “no way” Leigh could have avoided the vehicle if the driver followed through with the attack. Details on the incident are scarce, with no apparent suspects and no clear motive. However, it is not believed that the attacker simply lost control of the car. Leigh told Gair Rhydd: “The driver aggressively revved the engine multi-
ple times and sounded the horn before the car turned to hit me.” After the attack was unsuccessful, they sounded the horn a second time before driving away. They made no attempt to check Leigh’s welfare, nor the welfare of the oncoming car’s driver. The stretch of Lowther Road where the incident took place has little lighting, and a number of street lamps have been been out of order for an extended period of time. Leigh said that he “couldn’t have seen anything in the darkness.” Neither the victim nor any witnesses were able to identify any of the driver’s characteristics, or even
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if there were any passengers, because the street was in darkness. Rachel Roberts, a witness, said that neither she nor anybody else on the scene managed to memorise the number plate of the vehicle. Roberts said that she initially thought the incident was a “sick sort of greeting.” She said that Leigh “could have easily been killed or seriously hurt.” She was accompanied by Rahul Modhavia, who told Gair Rhydd that he thought the car was a recent model VW Golf that looked like it had been “racered up.” Modhavia was disgusted by the incident: “The driver should receive a ban.”
Pictured:
Lowther Road where the incident took place
Continued on page 4
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