Teenager seriously hurt young clubbers in deliberate car attack, court told
ATEENAGER left two young women seriously injured after driving his car over them in a deliberate attack, a court has heard.
McCauley Cox, 19, is accused of trying to hit a male rival with his people carrier, only to miss and run over two women sitting on a kerb.
Newport Crown Court heard that Sophie Poole and Emma Nicholls were left with “serious injuries” when Cox’s black Ford C-Max ran them over and pinned them facedown on the ground.
The women, Cox and his two friends had been at the Courtyard nightclub in Newport, on Sunday, April 29, before leaving in the early hours of the morning when it shut.
A fight involving a group of young men, including Cox’s friends Callum Banton and Benjamin Thomas, broke out on Cambrian Road at around 5.30am, by which time he had fetched his car.
CCTV shows his car approaching the crowd before he accelerates,
missing a man trading blows with Mr Thomas, and instead driving over Miss Poole and Miss Nicholls as they sit waiting for a taxi.
Mobile phone footage shown in court captured the screams of other clubbers in the area, with some attacking the black Ford as it reverses before accelerating forward and leaving the scene.
Prosecutor James Wilson said Cox admits unlawfully injuring the two young women, but denies his intention had been to drive his car into the unidentified male.
Mr Wilson said: “Put simply, the case against Cox is that he deliberately drove a car at a man to cause that man really serious harm.
“Immediately behind that man were two young women. They were sitting on the kerb and could not get out of the way of Cox. They were the ones who suffered the really serious injuries instead.”
Mr Wilson said the car ran over the chest and thigh of Miss Poole, who was pinned to the floor and screamed for Cox to stop.
Mr Wilson said: “She felt a crushing pain to her back then she thinks she blacked out.”
Miss Poole required specialist skin grafts after suffering burns to her chest, breasts and forearm, and abrasions to her face.
She described to the court the wheels of the car going over her body, then again when the car reversed.
She said: “The first thing I was aware of was the wheels. I just remember it coming towards me.
“I remember the wheels going over me and thinking it was never going to end. My face was pressed to the tarmac and the whole weight on the car was on me.
“Then I thought it was finished but the wheels again came over me. I remember screaming for it to stop.”
She said she thought she might be paralysed because she was unable to move her body after blacking out, and had an “intense burning pain” in her left arm.
She showed the court her arm, which has to be kept in a pressure garment to reduce scarring after her surgery.
Miss Nicholls was also pinned to the floor and suffered a lacerated spleen and damage to her ankle.
She told the court she heard a woman scream before the car hit her, and described the “immense pain” she felt after being crushed by its wheels.
She said: “The first part I saw was the bonnet. Then the car ran over me and Sophie and then reversed back on to us.
“The car was on top of me as it went back. I think it was two wheels that were going over me.
“I was in immense pain. My face was against the ground and my eyes were shut.”
Miss Nicholls said she blacked out but regained consciousness after the car had driven off, and she became “hysterical”.
She added: “Sophie was lying on the floor calling for me with blood over her face.
“I had a denim jacket on with tyre marks on it.”
CCTV showed Cox return to the street on foot half an hour after the incident before returning to his car.
Police found the car nearby after it had been set on fire, and Cox was arrested in the attic of a property.
He told police he had sold the car before the incident, but later admitted being its driver.
Cox, from John Ireland Close, Newport, denies two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.
The trial continues.