Owen Peter Scott (pictured) has pleaded guilty to four counts of attempted murder

A 29-year-old man has admitted attempting to kill four young children by hitting them with a hammer before crashing a car into a wall of a pub with them inside.

Owen Peter Scott was arrested at the scene of the crash after he and the children, including a baby, were pulled from the wreckage of the vehicle near Barnsley, South Yorkshire.

A judge heard how Scott drove the children - two girls, aged seven and eight, and two boys aged 21 months and nine months - 250 miles before colliding with a wall of the Travellers Inn.

An an earlier hearing, prosecutors said Scott had first hit the children over the head with a hammer, but after failing to kill them decided to crash into a building head-on.

At Sheffield Crown Court today, Scott stood in the dock wearing a grey shirt and plead guilty to four counts of attempted murder as well as a charge of dangerous driving.

He was originally arrested in Thurgoland, near Barnsley, on suspicion of dangerous driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Days later, South Yorkshire Police announced Scott, who had been driving a grey Dacia Logan, had also been charged with attempted murder.

Owen Scott's mother Pauline (shown left) is seen leaving Sheffield Crown Court after her son (right) pleaded guilty to attempted murder

A judge heard how the 29-year-old drove the four children 250 miles from his home in Fawley, Hampshire to the north of England before colliding with a wall of the Travellers Inn

Scott originally pleaded not guilty to the charges during an appearance at Sheffield Magistrates Court in September.

Scott, from Fawley near Southampton, Hants, looked up and smiled at two women in the public gallery but spoke only to confirm his name.

Michelle Colborne, defending, told the court: 'Although he has been in custody since the commission of the offences his psychological position was unclear.

'He may have been suffering from short-lived psychosis.

Scott (pictured after his arrest) looked up and smiled at two women in the public gallery but spoke only to confirm his name

'There's a mitigation which demonstrates at the time he was likely suffering from psychosis, short-lived affecting his self-control.

'He has very little or no memory of the events in the car.'

Scott also pleaded guilty to driving a vehicle dangerously on the A629, Copster Lane, Barnsley.

During a previous hearing, the court was told how Scott had a hammer in the car at the time and used it 'to inflict blows on the children in the car to their heads'.

Simon Kealey QC, prosecuting, told the court: 'As a result of failing to kill them in that way he ended up driving towards the pub.'