Keane escapes jail term over road-rage row

LONDON — Former Manchester United captain Roy Keane has been cleared of aggressively confronting a taxi driver in an alleged road rage row. Keane, 43, denied the public order offence after cabbie Fateh Kerar, 44, had told him to “cheer up” and smile.

The charge, a Section 4A Public order offence, carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison and a £5,000 (S$10,602) fine.

Kerar was allowed to give evidence from behind a screen. Mark Angus, opening the case for the prosecution, said: “Mr Kerar, a taxi driver by profession, picked up a fare, Miss Isman, driving to Hale village where she stopped to get some money.

“Mr Kerar saw Mr Keane in a black 4x4 vehicle. He described he had been staring aggressively towards Mr Kerar, at this point Mr Kerar gestured a smile with his hands. He drove off and Mr Keane follows behind.

“At a junction the defendant gave a ‘V’ sign towards Mr Kerar and then gets out of his vehicle, at this point he becomes aggressive, shouting and waving his arms around towards Mr Kerar and his passenger. He then gets back in his vehicle and drives away.”

Throughout the taxi driver’s evidence, Keane could be seen seated with arms folded and shaking his head.

Kerar told the court: “When I parked my car I looked to the left and it was Roy Keane parked in his car. I looked at him, he looked at me. He kept staring at me in my face.

“He was looking at me very aggressively, saying something in his car. I couldn’t hear him. He was looking at me very aggressively. I have never met him before. He was giving me bad looks.”

Kerar said that he made a wave gesture to him but that Keane made no response and continued to stare at him for between 10 and 15 seconds.

He said that he set off to Altrincham Station with his fare and Keane followed him “straight away” before jumping out of his car.

“He jumped from his car and he was swearing aggressively,” continued Kerar. “I could hear from him his Irish accent. He was very mad. He was swearing, mad, and he lost his temper. He was very aggressive. He put his finger to me like that (gestured a ‘V’ sign).

“He was of course ‘f******’ and ‘f******’. I’m not going to say what he said. He was swearing, you f****** this, you f*** that. I’m not sure exactly what he was saying. I said to him to go back to his car. He was mad and aggressive. He was swearing at me. I can’t remember what he was saying.”

Keane, who played for United from 1993 to 2005, gave evidence from the witness box himself and, after a half-day trial at Manchester Magistrates’ Court, he was cleared of the offence.

District Judge Duncan Birrell said there was something of the “thwarted fan” about Kerar and Keane’s lawyer described the whole incident as a “storm in a tea cup”.

Keane was cleared of causing “harassment, alarm or distress” to Kerar — a Public Order offence. THE DAILY TELEGRAPH