Stourbridge school hit-and-run driver locked up for nine years
A man who deliberately drove into a crowd of parents and infants gathered near a school has been jailed for nine years.
Among the parents was Jason Campbell who had been deliberately targeted by his brother Kevin, Wolverhampton Crown Court heard.
Shortly before the incident the pair had argued over an unspecified domestic dispute allegedly involving friends and family of their girlfriends.
Kevin Campbell, aged 30, dismissed this as ‘bickering women’, but took it to terrifying new heights.
He jumped into a car which had been stolen two days earlier, mounted the pavement and deliberately aimed the Ford B-Max at the cluster of five parents and two children, aged two and three, who were making their way from Hob Green Primary School in Hob Green Road, Stourbridge, to a nearby nursery.
Campbell from Vickers Walk, Stourbridge, claimed his brother was the driver but a jury convicted him of dangerous driving, as well as seven charges of trying to cause grievous bodily harm with intent, following a trial in January after which he was remanded in custody for reports.
'Unable to control his anger'
Mr Philip Brunt, defending, told the court when the defendant reappeared for sentence: “He now recognises what he did but did not find the courage to admit this earlier.
“Now, to quote him, he accepts what he did was unforgivable. He wanted to scare his brother but went way beyond that.
"He was unable to control his anger as difficulties within the family situation boiled over.”
Judge Barry Berlin told the defendant while passing sentence: “You had a row which caused you to be outraged but mercifully no serious injury was caused.”
A woman who threw the two year old child over a garden wall as the group scattered while the car sped towards them, explained later: “I knew it was not going to stop.
"I put my hands on its bonnet and was thrown onto the driveway of the house. I tried to get up but couldn’t and was helped out of the way.”
Several people were taken to hospital for check-ups but noone was seriously hurt.
The car came to a standstill after hitting the wall but Campbell, who was recognised by several eye witnesses, quickly reversed and sped off.
The damaged Ford was later found abandoned in a street five mile away.
It had been stolen in a car key burglary in Brierley Hill on September 10 2016, two days before the hit and run.
