A MAN was jailed for ploughing his car into drinkers standing outside a pub after he’d been thrown out for fighting.

Gavin Chesterman deliberately drove at Luke Palmer at the Royal Oak in Pontypool but his intended victim managed to jump out of the way.

The drunken defendant then hit Lauren Bull, who was forced under the front of his Vauxhall Astra car to the horror of fellow customers.

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He’d meant to target Mr Palmer because he held a grudge against him after punches were thrown between him and others earlier in the night.

South Wales Argus:

Gavin Chesterman used his car to try and hit Luke Palmer in front of the Royal Oak pub on George Street, Pontnewynydd, Pontypool, at around 1am on Saturday, January 29, 2022. Picture: Wales News Service

“Mercifully” no one was seriously injured after Chesterman’s “terrifying act” although Miss Bull suffered bruising to both legs as well as cuts.

Jason Howells, prosecuting, told Merthyr Crown Court: “The defendant accelerated forwards towards the pub driving through the railings that separate the beer garden from the street.

“The 10 or 12 people present who had been talking scattered.

South Wales Argus:

The court heard Gavin Chesterman told police: “They beat me up and I drove my car into them.” Picture: Facebook

“As it struck the railings, the car also struck Lauren Bull who had been standing on the pavement facing the pub and with her back to the defendant.

“She was forced under the front of the car.”

The court heard that Miss Bull could remember others tending to her at the scene while she was on the floor before being taken back into the pub.

South Wales Argus:

The Royal Oak in Pontypool. Picture: Google

“The defendant was still revving the engine and a witness got the impression that he was trying to move the car,” Mr Howells added.

“Others then smashed the passenger window to get at the keys.

“There was a brief scuffle with those around the defendant before he ran off.”

Chesterman, 31, of Upland Drive, Trevethin, Pontypool, pleaded guilty to attempting to cause grievous bodily harm, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and dangerous driving.

The judge, Recorder Greg Bull KC, told the defendant: “On January 29, 2022, you drove in a dangerous and outrageous manner.

South Wales Argus:

Gavin Chesterman

“Whatever your grievance against Mr Palmer, that was no excuse for you going into your car in a drunken state, driving it without its lights illuminated and then driving it quite deliberately at Mr Palmer intending to inflict really serious harm on him.

“If you had hit him and he’d died, you would have been charged with murder.

“As it is, the terrifying act of driving that car at speed as is evidenced from the CCTV footage towards Mr Palmer, caused him to jump out of the way but sadly the car collided with Lauren Bull and also caused another pedestrian to also jump out of the way sustaining injury.

“You drove at a crowd of people as the CCTV shows and it is remarkable that nobody was more seriously injured than they were.

“This was deliberate, there was a small degree of planning and as you drove towards the gathering, the lights of the car were off and as has been admitted you had an intention to cause really serious harm to Mr Palmer.

“Mercifully, not really serious harm was the result.”

Chesterman was jailed for 40 months and banned from driving for five years.