A THUG has been jailed after he went berserk in the car and ran over his former girlfriend.

Jamie Williams had rented a hire car on June 14 last year, then proceeded to drink beer before setting off from Brighton to visit his family in Braintree.

He was accompanied by his then girlfriend Shelley Kidd and a friend. But after they teased him on the journey back in the early hours of June 15, he lost his temper and attacked them both.

The 28-year-old first punched Ms Kidd’s friend in the face as he slept on the back seat, then dumped him by roadside after stopping the car.

Ms Kidd attempted to call the police and pleaded with Williams to go back and make sure her friend was all right.

But Williams turned his fury on her, punching her in the face, then after stopping again he dragged her out of the car. As he sped off, he drove over her leg and left her stricken by the roadside.

He then went to Ms Kidd’s mother’s property to retrieve his things. He stole a bank card belonging to her and withdrew £70, before going on the run in Essex.

But Williams, now of St James Road, Braintree, was found by police and charged with causing actual bodily harm, assault, fraud, and dangerous driving.

He appeared in the dock wearing a blue three-piece suit with a magnolia coloured tie and handkerchief for his sentencing at Lewes Crown Court yesterday.

Beverley Cherrill, prosecuting, said he has 17 previous convictions stretching back to when he was a young offender in 2003. In court he bowed his head and wept as his crimes were read out.

Simon Gladwell, mitigating, said Williams now has a diagnosis of attention, deficit and hyperactive disorder (ADHD) and said Williams had not deliberately run over Shelley, but admitted he was reckless.

But Judge Janet Waddicor said the notion that ADHD could explain the attack was “fanciful” and added Williams had shown “no hint of remorse”.

She said: “He went berserk. He punched her in the head while he was in the car driving, trying to get her phone and stop her calling the police.

“He had wound down his window, she feared that if he got the phone he would throw it out of the window.

“Mercifully she was able to ring 999.”

Judge Waddicor said Williams had consumed alcohol before the journey to Essex. The attacks happened after a fallout and after he was teased in the car.

The judge read out a victim statement from Miss Kidd about the “shocking” crimes.

Ms Kidd feared that her friend had been knocked unconscious.

She said: “This was a person who was supposed to love me that did this.

“I don’t want Jamie Williams anywhere near me, I don’t want to see him ever again.”

Judge Waddicor placed a five-year restraining order on Williams to prevent him contacting Ms Kidd, with who he has a child.

She sentenced him to four years in prison for running over Ms Kidd, but accepted that it was not a deliberate act. He was also jailed for a further three months consecutively for assault on her friend.

He was also banned from driving for 18 months.