A driver from Essex branded ‘idiotic’ by a judge has been jailed for eight months, after he left a teenage girl with serious injuries after hitting her in his car – and then driving off.

Local Essex newspaper the Daily Gazette reports that 22-year-old Sam Reeve – a father of two from Dorking Crescent in Clacton – was sitting outside his girlfriend’s flat in August 2008, when a group of 16 or 17 youths surrounded his car and then began kicking and rocking it with him sitting inside. The incident had started with a verbal exchange between Reeve and a girl walking past his car.

After being threatened, Mr Reeve drove off, but returned immediately and collided with 15-year-old Harriet Thompson as she was crossing a road junction. Ms Thompson was a friend of the group of youths who had surrounded Mr Reeve’s car, Chelmsford Crown Court heard.

The impact left her with a fractured right foot – and also peeled away some of the skin on her foot, requiring her to undergo skin grafts and plastic surgery. Ms Thompson is still undergoing surgery and uses a wheelchair and crutches.

Reeve admitted dangerous driving on the first day of his trial in December. The case was adjourned until Wednesday (20/01/10), when he was given an eight-month jail term.

The prosecution said that, although Reeve had driven off to avoid the confrontation after being surrounded by the group, he had driven further up the road, turned round swiftly and returned, travelling ‘at speed’ and swerving.

‘There were still a number of people milling round. He turned his vehicle round again and was described as swerving everywhere and he drove it at rapid pace. He struck the girl,’ the prosecution told the court.

Reeve drove off after the accident, but handed himself in at Harwell police station the following morning.

Reeve told the court that one of the teens who attacked his car had a knife – and another jumped out in front of him, although he said he did not know whether she was moving out of the way to try and avoid him.

‘I had to swerve to the left because there was someone there. I tried to miss her as well,’ Reeve told the court.

He had told police he had returned because he was worried about his girlfriend and their young baby in the flat where the incident had occurred. The court was told that Reeve should have driven off and called the police to report the group attacking his car.

Judge David Turner told the court that Reeve’s ‘idiocy’ had left one girl ‘desperately disabled’.

‘I am prepared to accept you felt threatened and didn’t intend by your driving to cause this or any other harm. You didn’t use your car as a weapon as such.’

However, the judge added that not to jail Reeve would be a failure in his duty to the victim, Ms Thompson.

Reeve was also disqualified from driving for 18 months and ordered to retake an extended driving test.

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