A FATHER who mowed down a group of teenagers in a "grotesque over-reaction" to them wrecking his van has been jailed for more than three years.

Father-of-five Mark Newcombe, formerly of Jerome Way, Shipton-on-Cherwell, left 18-year-old Graham Tomkins fighting for his life after the attack, prompted by Mr Tomkins and three others vandalising his Transit van with knives and baseball bats.

Shaun Cox, 18, suffered a broken foot and Daniel Jeffries, 18, was also injured.

A jury found Newcombe guilty of two counts of GBH, one of attempted GBH and another of dangerous driving.

At Oxford Crown Court yesterday, Newcombe, a 35-year-old car valet, stood tearfully in the dock as the court heard how police turned up to Jerome Way in the early hours of June 23 last year to find "pools of blood" on the road.

Graham Tomkins was left in a critical condition after being hit by the van and had to have 11 metal plates put in his skull. He has since recovered.

During the trial, the jury heard how a feud started when Newcombe popped Mr Tomkins' cycle tyres while inflating them at a local garage.

The teenagers retaliated by turning up at the house he shared with his partner and children and, dressed in balaclavas, wrecked his van with knives and baseball bats.

After discovering the group on his driveway, Newcombe went after them in his van, which had two tyres slashed, and deliberately swerved towards them.

Colin McCarraher, defending Newcombe, said he "bitterly regretted" his actions and accepted he should have left the police to deal with the teenagers.

He said Newcombe, who has previous convictions for criminal damage and dangerous driving, was in the process of turning his life around and had a steady job, partner and responsibility for five children.

He said: "Everything was going right for him until they turned up on his doorstep."

Jailing Newcombe for three years and three months, Judge Corrie told him the consequences of what he did could have been "considerably more serious" than they were.

He added: "The reason you did this was because you were literally blinded with rage and to some extent fear, because the boys had been round to your house and smashed up your vehicle.

"But chasing them down the road in a van on which two of the nearside tyres had been slashed was such a grotesque over-reaction that it really negates any suggestion that provocation might mitigate your sentence."

  • Former neighbours of Mark Newcombe in Jerome Way, Shipton-on-Cherwell, had mixed feelings yesterday. A 51-year-old woman, who asked not to be named, said: "From what I can gather it's about six of one and half-a-dozen of the other.

"If someone had beaten my car up I would chase them as well. From what I gather he stayed with them and called an ambulance so that's something in his favour. He was very pleasant - I never had any arguments with him."

Another neighbour said: "He was nice enough; always with his kids."

Andrew Winter moved into Newcombe's old house said: "He seemed all right. The people that we have spoken to don't seem too bothered about the whole thing."

And another neighbour said: "He was nice enough; always with his kids.

"I don't know much about it, I heard his car got wrecked and he chased them."