Four Years For Van Attack On Camping Teenagers

A 25-year-old man has been jailed for fours years for ramming a tent with his van and driving over a teenager.

The drink-fuelled revenge for an earlier slight led initially to attempted murder charges after Benjamin Allerton left the boy with serious fractures and sent a 13-year-old girl flying as he careered past.

He was condemned in court for the "absolutely terrifying attack" which saw him confront a group of teenagers whom he had earlier tried to befriend.

Ambushing the campsite where they had been drinking in a field near Barlby, North Yorkshire, he revved the engine and shouted: "You've got five seconds to run."

The landscape gardener, who has two children and a stepchild and no previous criminal record, then roared over the tent before turning the van round and chasing the fleeing teenagers.

He hit the girl and 16-year-old boy who spent three days in hospital for two operations to put a metal plate and screws in his arm. The girl was traumatised and still suffers flashbacks.

Andrew Dallas, prosecuting, told York crown court that Allerton had earlier visited the makeshift camp and joined the group's informal partying. But when he tried to embrace a 13-year-old girl, he was asked to go and then punched and pushed into his van when he initially refused. He returned a short time later in his van.

He later admitted to police that he had intended to injure the group because of their insults and cold-shouldering of him.

Damian Nolan, defending, told the court that Allerton's behaviour changed after he was assaulted three years ago, suffering post-concussion disorder which can affect mood and aggression. Dolan said: "His family has been consistent in saying there has been a sea change in his behaviour since that assault." The row with the teenagers was just the sort of thing to trigger a deterioration in a normally reliable and well-behaved man.

Judge Michael Mettyear told Allerton that although post-concussion disorder might have been involved, alcohol-fuelled anger was the "much more immediate cause". He said: "You drove round deliberately seeking out those you could catch in an open field and you struck two people. It was good luck, not judgment, that the injuries were not worse.”

(H)