Pickup truck driver jailed for running over women

A man who hit two women with his pickup truck before driving away has been jailed for three years and nine months.

Christian Matthews, 35, admitted two charges of inflicting and causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Danielle Jones and Latiffah Edubri were left seriously injured in the incident on Harris Avenue in Rumney, Cardiff, in the early hours of 2 November 2023.

Matthews was acquitted of attempting to murder the two women.

Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court heard that Matthews, had left his parents’ home on Harris Avenue to buy cigarettes before he struck the two women with his black Mitsubishi.

Neighbours reported hearing a bang and went outside to help.

The collision was also caught on CCTV.

Instead of stopping, Matthews continued on to a nearby petrol garage before later driving to a friend’s house where he was eventually arrested.

Prosecutor Matthew Roberts KC said both women suffered significant injuries, causing them "profound mental and physical effects".

Sentencing Matthews, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said: "You were depressed, following a breakup, you had not slept and were in no fit state to drive."

She added: "I accept you didn't intend any harm, but you drove without looking at the road, accelerating as you did so.

"You knew you had struck someone but didn't even brake, leaving Ms Jones and Ms Edubri for dead."

The jury heard it was not possible to forensically determine the speed at which Matthews was driving, but were told he had been busy "skipping tracks" on the CD player at the moment of impact.

Judge Lloyd-Clarke said: "You remembered pressing play and looking up to see a face and two eyes - you could have been in no doubt you had struck a person.

"Yet you couldn't explain why you didn't perform an emergency stop when you heard the bang."

In a victim statement read out to the court, Miss Edubri described how her independence had been stripped away and that she was having to "learn how to live again".

Suffering with mobility and mental health problems as a result, she added: "The defendant has ruined my life. It feels like we were objects to him."

Ms Jones said in her statement she was "clueless about what had happened and why".

She spent a month in hospital and described it as a "nightmare", saying she felt "crippled, stuck and trapped" due to her injuries.

The court heard the defendant had 11 previous convictions for 18 offences dating back to 2007.

Some of those were for motoring offences such as driving with excess alcohol, driving disqualified and driving with no insurance.

He had also previously been convicted of assault after beating an emergency worker.

Matthews' defence barrister, Caroline Rees KC, told the court that he had been "in a period of crisis" at the time, including "his wedding called off, he was depressed due to problems with unmedicated ADHD".

She added: "He also had financial problems and had sunk into a spiral of alcohol and drug misuse."

Ms Rees said Matthews had written letters of apology expressing his remorse, and had 40 certificates that showed the work he was doing to try to do the readdress his thinking.

Matthews, of Harris Avenue, Rumney, will serve concurrent sentences of three years and nine months, half of which will be spent in custody.

He has already spent 10 months on remand and is disqualified from driving for eight years and one month.