An Orangeman who drove into a crowd in Ardoyne in July 2015 and injured a teenage girl has been jailed.

John Alexander Aughey, 63, from Brae Hill Park in north Belfast was convicted by a jury in June of dangerous driving causing grievous bodily injury to a teenage girl and injuring others.

On Friday he was sentenced to two years - one of which will be served in prison, with the other on licence.

He was also disqualified from driving for two years.

Aughey was drove past the Ardoyne shops on his way home from an Orange Order parade on 13 July 2015 when he became stuck in traffic where nationalist crowds gathered.

He was identified as an Orange Order member and the crowd reacted, a bottle was thrown at his car and his wing mirror kicked.

Aughey did a U-turn into a parking bay where people were standing and hit a number of people including 16-year-old Pheobe Clawson who became trapped under his car.

Despite police banging on his car window and shouting at him, he continued to drive and dragged Ms Clawson along for three seconds until the car stopped. She suffered a shattered pelvis, a broken collar bone and a broken ankle.

The jury rejected the defendant’s explanation that he was put in fear of his life by the actions of some members of the crowd and he genuinely and reasonably believed he had no choice but to drive.

Judge Smyth said at the start of sentencing that the prosecution’s case had never been that Aughey had deliberately drove into pedestrians or that he had intended to hurt anyone. The issue was that he had caused serious injury to others by driving in a manner which fell far below that to be expected of a competent and careful driver irrespective of any lack of intention to cause harm.

Aughey pictured in his car at the scene at the Ardoyne shop fronts. Credit: Pacemaker

In sentencing Judge Smyth said the circumstances of the case were “unique”.

“Had it not been for the fact that you found yourself in a threateningsituation, you would have continued on your journey home and nooffence would have been committed. That is a powerful mitigatingfactor in terms of your culpability.”

She continued: “In carrying out a U-turn manoeuvre, there was an obvious danger that members of the public who were present both on and off theroad would suffer serious injury.

“The jury rejected your assertion that you had no choice but to drive in this way because you feared for your life. Whilst members of the crowd did react in a hostile manner towards you, with one person throwing a bottle at your vehicle and another kicking at your wing mirror, the fact is that the closestpersons to your vehicle before you made the U-turn were policeofficers.

“In deciding to carry out that manoeuvre, you could not have been unaware of the heavy police presence and the phalanx of armoured vehicles on both sides of the road.”

The judge considered the case fell into the category of intermediate culpability and as such the starting point was two to four-and-a-half years in prison.

She said she took into account the aggravating factor that Aughey continued to drive after the initial collison. She also took into account the mitigating factors including the threatening circumstances which were the catalyst to the offences as well as the defendant’s personal mitigation.

Judge Smyth concluded that a starting point of two years imprisonment reflected the defendant’s culpability.

She said the fact that Aughey contested the case was not an aggravating factor, but it did mean he was not entitled to the credit he would have received if he had pleaded guilty.