A NEWPORT man punched a van driver in the face after repeatedly forcing him to stop, slow down and change direction during a chase along city roads.

Leighton Henson, behind the wheel of a black Volkswagen Polo, forced the van to stop in Ringland, on the afternoon of April 23 this year, then ripped off a wing mirror and shattered a side window before its driver managed to move off again.

Henson followed him along the A48 Southern Distributor Road towards the Coldra roundabout, forcing him off along Chepstow Road before stopping him by overtaking and performing a handbrake turn.

Newport Crown Court was told that the 21-year-old then got out of his car and punched the van driver through the broken window.

But he sustained a broken leg after he fell from the side of the van and its terrified driver ran over him while trying to get away.

Henson, of Emmerdale Court, Old Barn Estate, Newport, later told police he had been at a T-junction in Ringland behind the van, which moved slightly backwards and hit his car. He then decided to overtake and remonstrate with its driver.

Gareth James, prosecuting, said the van driver, a contractor, was driving along Hendre Farm Drive, Ringland, after completing a job, when the Polo had overtook him and forced him to stop.

Its driver - Henson - had then pulled off the driver's side wing mirror and shattered the slightly open side window by pulling on the glass.

The van driver managed to move away, but Henson followed him along the A48, and forced him onto Chepstow Road where he overtook once more, did the handbrake turn and attacked the driver again.

By this stage, the pair were being followed by a third driver, whose car had been hit by the reversing van as its driver tried to get away from Henson earlier, in Ringland.

It was only as the chase continued that this third driver realised the van and the Polo appeared to be the subjects of a road rage incident.

Judge Philip Richards, who was told Henson regretted the incident, told him he had carried out "a bad piece of dangerous driving that caused real danger to a number of people" and that this had continued over a considerable period of time.

"I must also take into account the violence you meted out," he said.

Henson was jailed for 10 months on a charge of dangerous driving, with eight-month, two-month, and one-month sentences for respectively, assault occasioning actual bodily harm, criminal damage, and failing to surrender to bail, to run concurrently.

He was also banned from driving for 12 months and ordered to pay £200 compensation and court charges totalling £1,000.