Ancaster resident can put disturbing attack behind him

After over two years of waiting, Ancaster resident Alf Moulden has finally found peace.

In September 2020, Moulden was walking to the Fortinos grocery store on Wilson Street when he was jumped from behind," causing him to fall to the ground, bleeding from his right ear.

The next thing Moulden remembers is waking up at Hamilton General Hospital with a police officer telling him he was the victim of road rage."

While he was lying on the ground unconscious, a person was kicking and punching him. A woman went to his aid, while a man took down the licence plate number of the vehicle the person who initiated the attack was driving.

On Dec. 14, 27 months after the horrific incident, a judge sentenced the attacker to six months in jail and ordered him to pay Moulden for the loss of income as a bus driver, plus an airline ticket from British Columbia for his son to care for him. The defendant was also sentenced to two years of probation.

Moulden said the total cost for missing work - the first time since he started as a bus driver a decade ago - and the plane ticket was about $6,200.

At the sentencing hearing, Moulden was disappointed the defendant didn't even apologize to him for his actions.

A 56-year-old male suspect was initially charged with assault level one, which is categorized as a common assault under the Criminal Code. But the charge was elevated by police to assault causing bodily harm.

The judge did not consider the assault a road rage" incident because it did not occur on the roadway. But the judge did state the attack was premeditated."

I'm quite pleased to have this ordeal over," said Moulden, 74, in an interview. It's an awful thing to go through. They really did an outstanding job. They were spot on in the sentencing. Justice has been served, even if it was a little slow."

The COVID-19 pandemic delayed the court hearing in 2021, along with waiting for the original judge to complete a sabbatical. The defendant, who initially defended himself in court, decided to hire a lawyer for the sentencing phase.

Moulden is back driving his school bus. He returned about a month after the attack, when he was medically cleared. He had a computerized tomography (CT) scan conducted on his head and it revealed some bleeding" in his brain at the time.

Moulden found out later that the person grabbed his collar. He is about five feet nine inches tall, while the attacker, who was well over six feet, pulled him back violently. As he was being pulled back, the attacker struck Moulden with a weapon, cutting his ear and knocking him out.

While in hospital, Moulden had his ear stitched up and he stayed overnight until the bleeding in his brain subsided.

Moulden is still bewildered as to why he was attacked. He left his house that fateful September Sunday morning to make a pickup at Fortinos, which is only a few minutes from his home.

He acknowledged that he was going the speed limit, and nobody was honking, yelling or making any rude gestures to indicate he was interfering in any way with another person or vehicle.

Moulden's best guess is the person mistook him for someone else.

That's all I can think of," said Moulden, who attended the court proceedings curious to know why the person attacked him. Why would he do that? I did nothing wrong. There was nothing to do about aggressive driving. What did I do to cause so much anger?"

STORY BEHIND THE STORY: We wanted to follow up on a story we first reported in 2020 on an unprovoked attack outside the Ancaster Fortinos.