Leeds man jailed for wife attack after using car as 'highly dangerous weapon'

David Jenkins, 38, previously of Hartlepool and now of Leeds, drove off with their young daughter screaming inside the Mercedes as neighbours rushed to help her mother who was bleeding from a leg injury when she was hit by an open car door.

Police were alerted and they forced the car to a halt, dragging him from behind the wheel and reuniting the child with her mother, said prosecutor Joseph Hedley.

The couple had been unofficially reconciled after Jenkins was banned from contacting her under two court orders taken out by his wife, Teesside Crown Court was told.

Joseph Hedworth, prosecuting, said that the wife was trying to pull the girl from his car on March 6 when he reversed the vehicle, striking her with the open door, and as she fell to the ground she injured her left leg.

Neighbours were pleading with Jenkins to let the girl go but he drove off at speed with the child standing up in the car and screaming.

The police had been alerted and a police car forced him to a stop before he was dragged out and arrested.

The court heard the wife had not told her family or friends that that they had been seeing each other and were trying to make a go of their marriage.

But after Jenkins’ arrest new court orders were made banning him from contacting her, which he breached four times on social media using aliases.

Martin Scarborough, defending, said in mitigation that Jenkins had been out with his daughter and he had returned her to the address when the incident happened.

He reversed the car and the open door struck his wife.

The judge Recorder, Anthony Dunne told Jenkins, who appeared over a videolink from Durham Jail: “The way that you used your car is equivalent to using a highly dangerous weapon.”

Jenkins, who later moved to East Park Grove, Burmantofts, was jailed for 26 months and disqualified for three years and until he passes an extended driving test.

He pleaded guilty to dangerous driving, actual bodily harm assault and breaches of non-molestation and restraining orders.