Hit-and-run driver who hurled boy, 10, into air and left him with serious injuries spared jail

The family of a boy left with life-changing injuries in a car accident have spoken of their “disgust” that the driver has been spared jail.

Oliver Davies, 10, suffered a punctured lung, broken arm and nose, dislocated shoulder, fractures to his spine and pelvis, a lacerated spleen and hip, and broken teeth when he was hit by a car last June.

Driver Samuel Congreve, who tested positive for drugs following the incident, pleaded guilty to failing to stop after an accident causing personal injury, driving without due care and attention, and driving with cannabis in his blood.

He was handed a four-month suspended sentence and told to obey a three-month curfew. He was also banned from driving for two years.

Rugby-loving Oliver was crossing a road at a pedestrian crossing with a friend in Tredegar, Blaenau Gwent, when he was struck by Congreve coming "out of nowhere”.

Oliver was flung 30 feet into the air and onto the other side of the road while Congreve drove off without stopping.

He has now been left with life-changing injuries and mum Amy Davies said the family had been let down by Congreve’s lenient sentence.

"It was disgusting, I walked out as soon as the judge said suspended. We behaved obviously but I wish I said more now," he said. "I have never shaken so much in my life, I was angry.

"All we wanted was a sentence, just something to get us a bit of closure, that he's actually being punished. I think to myself now I can go out, drink driver, knock a kid over, flee the scene and get away with it.”

Mrs Davies and her husband Alex, were told about the crash by Oliver's brother Morgan, and Mr Davies ran to the scene to find his son surrounded by paramedics.

In a victim impact statement read at the sentencing, Mrs Davies said: "My worst nightmare has always been to receive that phone call that one of our children had been knocked over and to have it happen is inconceivable.

"When we arrived on the scene to see our beautiful boy, seeing his body battered and broken, grazed from head to toe, his shoulder completely deformed and out of position and screaming in pain was horrific to see.

"This individual who didn’t even have the basic human nature to stop, not even knowing if he had killed our boy, a person not an object or even an animal but our son, a brother and a grandson, a human being.”

Oliver, now 11, spent nine days in hospital following the crash and was left unable to walk upstairs or play with friends. He suffered recurring nightmares for weeks afterwards.

Mrs Davies said: ”Looking to the future we don’t know how it will affect Oliver both physically and mentally.

"He has ongoing problems with his back, which again we are currently awaiting results for. Will this affect his choice of job he can do later in life? Will Olly be able to play sports again? Will the nightmares return? These are things we won’t know yet."

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