A vigilante mowed down an innocent university student in his Land Rover then left him for dead while hunting youths who played knock-and-run at his family home.
Oliver Donnellan, 47, left Christopher German with serious leg injuries after ploughing into the 20-year-old business management undergraduate as he sat on a park gate with friends.
The father-of-two had earlier flown into a rage after two teenagers he had a confrontation with a week earlier outside his £350,000 semi-detached property knocked at his door as a prank then ran off.
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He decided to give chase, jumped into his 4x4 Discovery with his brother and drove almost two miles to an area where it was known local youths would hang out. He sped along a grass track leading to Cutacre Country Park in Atherton, near Wigan, in the hope of finding the culprits - but instead hit Christopher who was watching Dr Who on a mobile phone.
The victim, who had not been involved in the earlier incidents, was struck in the legs and thrown onto the bonnet of the Land Rover, which then sped away as his friends tended to him. Christopher later had to have his left knee fully reconstructed and doctors say he will develop arthritis by his late 20s.
He was forced to retake the second year of his degree at the University of Manchester and was left unable to play football without leg supports or go skateboarding with friends. He was housebound for several months and had to get assistance from his parents to wash and bathe.
Donnellan, who was director of an IT consultancy, dashed home after the crash and deliberately parked his Land Rover in the driveway front-end first so passers-by would not see it had sustained damage. He subsequently had the damage repaired before replacing the Discovery with a new Audi SUV. He was eventually charged 18 months after the incident.
At Bolton Crown Court last Thursday (March 9), Donnellan was jailed for 12 months after being found guilty of causing serious injury by dangerous driving by a jury. He was also banned from driving for three years, which will come into effect when he is freed from prison.
'You thought you had got away with it'
Donnellan denied wrongdoing, but Christopher's father Martin read a statement in which he told him: ''Unfortunately for me I drive past your house every day, I now see that Audi parked on your driveway and I always think you are proverbially sticking two fingers up at me.
''You thought you had got away with it and you thought you were getting on with your own life not caring about how badly you had affected ours. During your trial, you tried to portray yourself as a well-respected, upstanding member of the community - but I know different. It doesn't matter if you're a pillar of society or a career criminal - you've given my son a life sentence.''
He added: ''However angry, frustrated upset and stressed I am, I have resisted the temptation to take the law into my own hands as other fathers would have done. As a law abiding citizen I put my trust in the police and the criminal justice system.
''But I had to listen in court about how sorry you are when you have never once inquired about my son's wellbeing or expressed a shred of remorse. Any decent person would have reached out to Chris, even through a third party or letter, and I find it difficult to understand how as a father yourself you haven't done so or shown any contrition whatsoever.
''In fact, I found it highly inappropriate and offensive to see you laughing with your defence team in public areas of the court in sight of my wife and I on various occasions during the trial. My son went out on a Saturday night and had his life changed forever because a red mist descended on you and you couldn't control yourself.''
Hit-and-run came after he chased down youths
The incident occurred after Donnellan had confronted two youths he caught loitering outside his gated property in Over Hulton, Bolton. The youngsters were warded off but a week later - on the evening of December 28, 2019, Donnellan was at home when the same youths knocked on his door then ran off.
He was so infuriated that he decided to pursue them in his vehicle and tried to head them off at the grass track in the belief the culprits would escape through the nearby park.
Chris, now 23, later said: “I was sat on the fence on my phone and then the 4x4 came down the road with its high beam lights on. At first I thought nothing of it but then it pelted up the path and by the time I looked up it hit me. I managed to push my body up but the Land Rover hit my legs. I landed on the bonnet and I screamed out.
“I was pinned between the gate and the Land Rover and I could not feel anything from my left knee down to my heel. One of my friends helped me to get over the gate and run away when the vehicle reversed but I collapsed on a dirt track.
“We all thought we were going to be killed - it was the scariest moment of my life. I do not know how someone could slam their car at someone.”
He told police: ''This complete stranger changed my life forever and I genuinely thought my friends and I could have been killed. As it is, I cannot do things a young man in his 20s should be able to do. I'm still anxious when cars drive past me when I am out and about. It's made me very angry bitter and resentful.''
Chris's parents, who live nearby, dashed to the scene in the aftermath of the crash to find their son lying motionless and badly injured on the floor and his friends saying: ''We thought that car was going to kill us.''
Chris's mother Lynda, a midwife, wept as she told the court: ''This man used his car as a weapon to drive into our son and his friends deliberately and at speed. When I first saw him at the scene I thought he was dead. As a mother and sensible right minded human being I still don't understand to this day what possessed someone to do what you did and harm someone for no reason.''
Donnellan said he braked in the moments before the impact but was unable to stop in time and hit the gate at about 10mph. He admitted driving away but said he reported the incident to police and his insurers shortly after arriving home.
The court heard in the aftermath of the hit-and-run crash Donnellan's nephew rang Christopher and threatened to kill him after learning police were investigating.
Donnellan's counsel, Tom Gent, said bail conditions prevented his client from contacting Christopher and his family and added: ''No matter what others might say he is truly sorry for what happened. He bitterly regrets going out in his car and should have stopped to think. If there was levity outside the courtroom, it was unconnected with the subject matter of this trial.''
Sentencing Donnellan, of Manchester Road, Bolton, Judge Thomas Gilbart told him: ''You were fired up and irritated and you were driving aggressively due to the knock and run.
''You went to an area where you thought young people might congregate and witnesses variously described your car as travelling at excessive speed and accelerating until the moment of impact. It on a dark lane towards a dead end and on a grass surface unfamiliar to you.
''Those previous incidents had nothing whatsoever to do with Christopher German, an innocent young man who was watching Dr Who with his friends on a mobile phone. Yet when you crashed into him you caused substantial injuries which he says has changed his life forever.''
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