A DRIVER who seriously injured two young women after running them over outside a Newport nightclub had targeted them, a witness told a jury.

At Newport Crown Court, Nathan Rumble said he was furious after he saw McCauley Cox “going for” Sophie Poole, 24, and Emma Nicholls, 23.

The 19-year-old is on trial accused of causing the pair grievous bodily harm with intent outside The Courtyard nightspot on Cambrian Road by deliberately driving his Ford C-Max at them.

The university friends had been sitting on a kerb waiting for a taxi after the club had just closed at around 5.30am when they were injured.

Cox, of John Ireland Close, Newport, denies the charges.

Mr Rumble was asked by prosecutor James Wilson what he saw in the early hours of Sunday, April 29.

He told the jury he had been at the nearby Warehouse 54 nightclub on Cambrian Road when he and friends left at the same time as The Courtyard closed.

Mr Rumble said: “I heard tyres screeching and I saw a group of people go down.”

Of the driver, he said: “He was going for them. How could you hit them twice without knowing what you are doing?

“I have never been so angry. He just ran over those girls. I don’t know who does that.”

CCTV images played to the jury showed some men attacking the car which left Cox’s vehicle with a cracked windscreen.

Mr Rumble admitted he was among them and it had left him with a bruised and cut hand.

When he arrived home that morning and met his mother on her way to work, he added: “I was crying because I was in shock.”

Mr Wilson has told the jury that Cox had been on a night out with friends Benjamin Thomas and Callum Banton and the trio had visited the nearby La Bamba nightclub before going to The Courtyard.

The defendant had his car with him and had left the other two to go and get it from High Street before driving to the club’s Cambrian Road exit.

The jury were shown CCTV footage of a fight breaking out involving his two friends.

An unidentified man began kicking Cox’s Ford C-Max and the prosecution claim the defendant deliberately drove at him but ended up hitting Miss Poole and Miss Nicholls.

The Courtyard’s head doorman, Sebastian Ignatowicz was asked by defence barrister Nicholas Gedge if he saw anyone behaving violently towards the driver.

He replied: “I could see people kicking the car from both sides … random people on the street.

“They were showing aggression towards the driver.”

Mr Wilson said that after being run over, Miss Poole’s face was pressed to the floor and she suffered serious friction burns and skin loss to her chest and arms and there were tyre marks over her body.

He told the jury that Miss Nichols’ spleen was split.

Proceeding.