Selby Man Jailed For Running Down Teens

14 August 2012, 17:20 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

25 year old Benjamin Allerton has been locked up for 4 years for driving his van into 2 teenagers after a drunken row.

Allerton told them: ``You've got five seconds to run'' and then flattened their tent and ploughed into the 16-year-old boy and girl, 13, as they ran away. 

York Crown Court heard he'd plotted the alcohol-fuelled attack after he got into an argument with their friends. 

He had been drinking with the group who were camping in a field near Barlby, but things turned sour when he tried to put his arm around a 13-year-old girl. He was asked to leave and was punched in the face, then shoved into his van. 

He returned less than an hour later, aimed his vehicle at the makeshift campsite and gave the teenagers a five-second countdown before he drove at them. 

Allerton careered across the field several times, flattening a tent and hitting the boy and girl as they fled. He ran over the boy's arm and shoulder, fracturing them, and clipped the girl, who was not badly hurt, the court heard. 

The boy spent three days in hospital and had two operations to put a metal plate and screws in his arm. The girl was traumatised and still suffers flashbacks. Allerton was initially charged with two counts of attempted murder which he denied. 

When his sentencing hearing began, he admitted causing grievous bodily harm with intent and attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent and the original charges were dropped.