Driver high on balloons jailed for hit-and-run horror

A driver high on nitrous oxide has been jailed for four years and six months after leaving a pedestrian with devastating injuries in a brutal hit-and-run.

James Liddle, 23, ploughed into Leon Manley as he was crossing Somerton Road in Newport during the early hours of Monday, August 25. He left his victim in a pool of blood after crashing into him in a Volkswagen Golf.

The 23-year-old didn’t stop to help Mr Manley, instead carrying on driving with a badly cracked windscreen. Liddle had only minutes earlier kidnapped his ex-girlfriend in Newport city centre after dragging her into the car. She was “frozen with shock” and was a passenger when the defendant hit Mr Manley at around 2.20am.

Liddle had been driving at “high speed” and his victim was found lying in the road by members of the public. The 32-year-old suffered a fractured skull, broken facial bones and eye socket and lost the middle finger of his left hand.

Hours later, Liddle torched the Golf in Pontypool. The man who owned the vehicle was initially arrested and questioned by detectives before being released under investigation.

n a moving victim impact statement, Mr Manley revealed: “I have felt a lot of emotions – stress, anger and frustration. I find it impossible to relax. I did use humour to help me get through it but when I’m on my own, I no longer find it funny.”

Liddle, of no fixed abode, Newport, admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving, kidnap, driving whilst disqualified and committing an act with intent to pervert the course of justice. He has four previous convictions for 10 offences, including dangerous driving.

His barrister Byron Broadstock said his client’s best mitigation was his early guilty pleas. “The defendant tells me he is deeply remorseful,” his lawyer added. “It wasn’t a deliberate act on his behalf against Mr Manley and he is very sorry.”

Judge Paul Hobson told Liddle: “The impact upon him is devastating and it has impacted his day-to-day tasks such as eating and bathing. His mobility is affected and he is reliant on others, including his mother, to help him. The consequences to him are very severe.”

The defendant was jailed for four years and six months and banned from driving for four years following his release from prison. He will have to sit an extended retest and pay a victim surcharge.