A driver who triggered an international chase by running after plowing a car into a crowd outside a pub has finally been jailed.
Bradley Knapp, 27, was named Britain’s ‘most wanted’ after the incident at The Clipper pub in Dartford High Street, Kent on 11 October 2019.
Within hours of Kent Police naming him as a suspect, he fled the country under a false name, but it was more than a year before he was caught.
Authorities found him living in Tenerife, where he had gotten a job, formed a stable relationship and became a father.
After being arrested on a European order, he was extradited back to Britain in October last year.
During his June trial at Maidstone Crown Court, Kent, he admitted to intentionally injuring and distorting justice, but was cleared of the more serious offense of attempted murder.
On Tuesday, October 5, he was sentenced to seven years in prison with two more years added to any time spent on license.
The prosecution had alleged that Knapp, who only had a provisional driving license and was on police bail for an unrelated dangerous driving relationship in October 2019, had been driving in a ‘murderous state of mind’.
The court heard how Knapp drove a Ford Fiesta through some bollards before speeding on the high street and steering sharply towards the crowd outside the pub.
A few minutes before he got into the car, Knapp had been thrown out of the pub for fighting with another man.
Although the majority of people were able to jump out of the way of the car, two were not.
Callum Walpole was flipped several meters in the air and was thrown over a parked car.
He later told police that when he landed and opened his eyes, he was ‘shocked that I was not dead’.
Another man, Gary Sayer, was hit to the ground with multiple injuries when his leg was cut off the front of the Fiesta.
Prosecutor Simon Taylor QC told the court that Knapp’s driving was ‘aggressive, deliberate and murderous’ and that he was clearly using the car as ‘a deadly weapon’.
But Knapp, who had not had more than five driving hours and has ADHD, was cleared of attempted murder after he told the court that even if he deliberately drove into the crowd, he would not kill anyone.
He admitted that he knew he would hurt someone, but said it was’ a scary tactic ‘and maintained:’ I would not take a person’s life. I would not spend the rest of my life in prison. ‘
Knapp, who was banned from driving for four years and three months, also admitted a separate offense of dangerous driving committed in August 2019.
He had taken cocaine and was driving a stolen car on fake plates when he led police on a mile-long chase in Swanscombe, Kent.
When he sent Knapp to jail, Mr Justice Cavanagh described him as ‘impulsive, aggressive, prone to losing control and striking out with great violence.’
Contact our news team by sending us an email at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check out our news page.