Frail pensioner Neil Robinson took his last breath in hospital at Christmastime. He died from a head injury suffered six days earlier when he was pushed by a road rage driver and crashed to the ground.
The catastrophic shove was dealt by drunk and drugged driver, broadly-built James Gill, in Ranson Road, Chilwell, who had been on an electrician's training course in Attenborough, and had been talking about violence and "bigging himself up". He left behind a soft drinks bottle which contained 22 percent of ethanol.
Mr Robinson, 75, who had simply been crossing the road when Robinson was driving along was seen to 'purposefully' swerve in the direction of elderly Mr Robinson. Gill got out. There was a verbal exchange before Gill used both hands to push him hard to his chest.
As Judge Stuart Rafferty QC put it as he sentenced 39-year-old Gill, from Doncaster, it was no exaggeration to describe Gill on that day "as a lethal weapon".
"You didn't need to have a car," he told Gill in the dock at Nottingham Crown Court on Friday. "You had you". Gill was jailed for nine years for the manslaughter of Mr Robinson after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing.
READ MORE: Pensioner who went for a coffee became victim of fatal 'road rage'
Mr Robinson's son, doctor Benjamin Robinson, did not attend the sentencing hearing. Sarah Knight, prosecuting, explained: "You understand the emotional impact of the situation was unbearable for him today".
She read out his statement on Dr Robinson's behalf. A university lecturer, he described having a photo of his dad on his desk and he looks at it every day. It was taken on Christmas Day - the last Christmas before the pandemic - and is of his dad sitting at the dining table with his arms around his grandchildren.
The photo is one of his favourite but now it carries even more poignancy - the combination of the joy in the photo mixed with the knowledge it will never be repeated. He will never forget when his father's death really truly hit him.
This happened on Christmas Eve, two days after he passed away in hospital, and when he had finally built up the courage to go to his dad's apartment. "His apartment was as if he had gone for a coffee, which he had done," he said.
His father often walked around the nature reserve, went to a coffee with friends, or read his book. "What really got me was the pile of Christmas presents on the dining table waiting to be wrapped," he added. "Cards unopened, never to be opened, including some from his grandchildren".
A card and presents for his grandson's birthday were there. His dad died on his grandson's ninth birthday. They had been planning a family day together but "that day never happened", said Dr Robinson.
He does remember pretending everything was okay, because, 'how can you tell a nine-year-old that his his grandad, whom he adored, has died on his birthday?'
"I remember the anger, though, my father wasn't there, wasn't able to spend time with his family, his grandchildren. That he would never be there again. That anger still burns.
"My father's death has made me do something I promised I would never do; I lied to my children. At six and nine, how can I tell them how their grandad died? How can they ever feel safe walking around knowing something horrific can happen at random?"
His dad died in the early hours of the first night he did not go to see him which he believes, at some level, was more than an coincidence and typical of the generous nature of his dad, sparing him of the actual event.
Detective Inspector Steve Wragg, of Nottinghamshire Police, said it was a desperately sad case. Following the sentencing, he said: “Gill’s attack on Mr Robinson was cowardly and completely unprovoked".
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