Sheffield man jailed for leaving passenger with serious injuries after ploughing car into taxi while on bail for dangerous driving

26-year-old Leyton Orr carried out the first of his latest set of offences after he failed to stop for police officers as requested while he was driving his car in Burngreave on August 8, 2017.

Susan Evans, prosecuting, said: “They blocked the junction with their police van. A police officer got out and was very close to the bonnet of the defendant’s car.

“He started driving directly at the police officer and accelerated. The police officer moved aside, and put his hand on the bonnet to keep his legs out of the way of the car. The defendant continued to drive to the end of the close where he decamped and ran off.”

Orr was finally arrested for the offence on February 6 last year, and remained on police bail when he committed the next set of crimes on August 3 this year.

Ms Evans said Orr was driving a white VW Golf on Hinde House Crescent, Grimesthorpe at the same time as a taxi was being driven down the hill on the opposite side of the road.

“The taxi driver describes the defendant’s vehicle as being driven at some speed and out of control. The defendant veered on to the wrong side of the road and collided with the cab...the defendant’s vehicle went on to collide with a wall,” Ms Evans said.

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Ms Evans told the court that there were ‘many people’ on the road in the aftermath of the accident, and the taxi driver asked a man standing nearby to phone the emergency services.

“The defendant told the man not to take a video, and snatched his phone out of his hand. He demanded to have it back, and the defendant punched him in the face and ran off,” Ms Evans said.

The taxi passenger was left with an open fracture to his right lower leg, which required surgery, as well as a fracture to his spine.

In a statement read to the court, the taxi passenger said: “I’ve had to spend time in hospital and have been left in agony. I haven’t been able to walk properly. I feel down and depressed.”

Orr, of Rockwood Hostel, Rotherham has previously been convicted of 28 offences, most recently for violent disorder in August last year, for which he received a 16-month sentence.

He pleaded guilty to offences of dangerous driving, causing serious injury by dangerous driving and perverting the course of justice at an earlier hearing.

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James Baird, defending, said Orr was placed into the care system as a child, after his father was sentenced to a substantial term of imprisonment, and was ‘shunted from pillar to post’.

Mr Baird said Orr subsequently ‘got himself into Class A drugs,’ and more recently has been dealing with the loss of his parents who died within a day of each other in January 2013.

“He was then only 20 and now has the responsibility of three young children...one positive of his pre-sentence report is that he seems to realise that if he can get himself employment, that may be a way of taking responsibility for his own life and for the lives of others,” Mr Baird said.

Judge Sarah Wright jailed Orr for 22 months and disqualified him from driving for 32 months.

She told Orr: “It’s clear from the pre-sentence report that you have been involved in substance misuse and you clearly lack maturity. You lost your parent to a drug related death, but you have children and you need to take responsibility for your life and theirs.”

- South Yorkshire Police has been asked to provide a custody image of Orr