Driver ran over innocent man after ‘ knock and run’ prank
A MAN who mowed down an innocent student after going on the hunt for prankster youths has been jailed.
Oliver Donnellan, 47, left business management undergraduate Christopher German with serious leg injuries after using his 4x4 ‘ as a weapon’ while the victim sat on a park gate with friends.
He was jailed for 12 months after being found guilty by a jury of causing serious injury by dangerous driving. He was also given a three-year driving ban.
Donnellan, a former director of an IT consultancy, had flown into a rage after two teenagers with whom he had had a confrontation a week earlier knocked at his £350,000 semidetached gated property in Over Hulton, Bolton, as a prank and then ran off. The father of two gave chase, jumping into his Land Rover Discovery with his brother. He sped along a grass track leading to Cutacre country park in Atherton, near Manchester, to find the culprits.
But instead he hit Mr German, 20, who was watching Dr Who on a phone. The student – who was not involved in the earlier incidents – was thrown on to the bonnet.
Donnellan sped away as Mr German’s friends tended to him. He later had to have his knee fully reconstructed and was left unable to play football or go skateboarding.
Donnellan dashed home after his attack and had the damage repaired before replacing the Land Rover with an Audi. He was charged
‘Not a shred of remorse’
18 months later. Mr German’s father Martin told Bolton Crown Court that the businessman had tried to portray himself as a wellrespected upstanding member of the community – ‘but I know different’.
He added: ‘My son went out on a Saturday and had his life changed for ever because a red mist descended on you and you couldn’t control yourself.’ He said Donnellan had ‘never expressed a shred of remorse’. The victim’s mother Lynda wept as she told the court Donnellan had ‘used his car as a weapon’.