A MAN could have killed his wife by driving his car up onto a pavement and hitting her, a court heard.
David Richard Lloyd believed he had killed her as he drove off.
The victim, Karen Lloyd, went over the bonnet, was thrown into the air, and ended up under a tree in a nearby garden, but miraculously she escaped with bruising and swelling.
At Mold Crown Court yesterday, Lloyd, 44, admitted attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm, dangerous driving, failing to stop and failing to report an accident.
Judge Rhys Rowlands, who told Lloyd he could easily have killed her, jailed him for three years and made a ten year restraining order not to approach her.
The court heard that Lloyd, of Keysbrook, Tattenhall, Chester, had a former conviction for assaulting his wife five years earlier.
The couple had two children aged 18 and 16 and had been divorced in 2006. They reconciled but then separated again last December.
In August, she was crossing Borras Park Road in Wrexham when a white Astra car startled her as it screeched to a halt.
She was left with her hands on the bonnet, Lloyd was behind the wheel laughing at her and he drove away.
But on September 9 she got off a bus in Mile Barn Lane, Wrexham, and waited on the pavement as the bus drove off.
Lloyd’s Astra accelerated, mounted the pavement and struck her.
She was thrown over the bonnet and ended up being hurled backwards, landing a few feet away in a neighbour’s garden, said Miss Subacchi.
Neighbour Paul Davies was alerted by her screams and he found her in a distressed state getting up in the garden.
Shortly before the incident Lloyd had been told she was in a new relationship.
Miss Subacchi said the victim went home and Lloyd’s sister arrived in a very worried state.
Shortly before the incident she had received a text message from Lloyd saying ‘hope you can forgive me for what I am about to do. After today it is over’.
He also sent another message later which said ‘I hurt her. I ran into her with the car’.
Later during a mental health assessment in hospital Lloyd told a nurse he had waited for his ex-wife knowing which bus she would be getting off.
He deliberately drove at her, she went over the bonnet, and he drove away thinking he had killed her.
John Wyn Williams, defending, said Lloyd was a respectable, hard-working family man who had suffered from acute depression since 1996.
Fortunately the injuries were minor, although it was appreciated it could have been an absolute tragedy.
He had pleaded guilty. Lloyd had admitted he intended to harm her but he said the car was being driven at a relatively slow speed.
Judge Rhys Rowlands said Lloyd had used the car as a weapon. The reality was it was only by the greatest good fortune that he did not kill her.
“He thought that he had killed her,” the judge said.
Sentencing Lloyd, the judge said it was a deliberately planned incident which could have resulted in tragic consequences.
They eventually separated in December of last year but instead of letting matters rest, it was clear that he harboured a grudge against his former wife.
“That bitterness and unjustified feelings of resentment led to you deliberately driving onto the pavement and hitting her with your car,” the judge said.
“She went over the bonnet. She was thrown backwards into the air and landed in a neighbour’s garden. Quite miraculously she did not sustain a serious injury.”