Newport man convicted of driving into women outside nightclub

A man from Newport has been found guilty of using his car as a weapon to run over two people after a night out in Newport.

McCauley Cox, 19, had denied two counts of grievous bodily harm with intent.

Two women who were sitting on a kerb waiting for a taxi suffered serious injuries on Cambrian Road.

Judge Daniel Williams said he faced a "substantial period" in a young offender institution for his "outrageous" behaviour on 29 April.

He will be sentenced on Friday.

The area outside The Courtyard nightclub in Newport city centre was busy with clubbers leaving the bar

Newport Crown Court was shown CCTV footage of the women being run over outside The Courtyard nightclub.

Cox claimed he was trying to stop a fight involving his friends by driving his Ford C-Max at a man involved, but hit Sophie Poole and Emma Nicholls instead.

He reversed back over them and then drove over them again, before speeding away from the scene.

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One of the women was left with a severe injury to her spleen, while the other required a skin graft and received multiple burns from the tyres.

Cox claimed he was "scared" of the crowd hitting his car after a stabbing in the city two weeks earlier, and drove off 'not realising' he had hit anyone.

Later on the morning of the incident, the car was found "engulfed in fire" in another part of the city by police and Mr Cox was found in an attic of a property.

Kelly Huggins, of the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS), said: "McCauley Cox used his vehicle as a weapon and caused an incident which left his victims with serious injuries.

"The CPS showed in court that his actions in driving his car into the crowd and reversing over those injured on two occasions amounted to this serious offence.

"Cox showed no regard for those he had injured.

"Our thoughts are with the victims as they recover from their injuries."