Man who fled 260 miles from police with child in car jailed

A man who hits speeds of 100mph with a child in his car before colliding with a police car has been jailed.

Wayne Smith, 27, of Mile Oak, Tamworth, assaulted a woman at an address in Tamworth on 4 August last year before taking her child and driving 260 miles to Newquay, Cornwall, in the early hours of the following day.

 Police were called and colleagues from Avon and Somerset Police found Smith’s vehicle on the M5. When officers were trying to stop the vehicle by boxing it in between junction 22 and 21, near Weston-super-Mare, Smith turned his vehicle and struck a marked police 4x4, causing it to overturn several times.
 
The vehicle came to rest on its roof, leaving an officer trapped as the vehicle then caught fire. The officer was rescued and suffered head injuries and PTSD.
 
The 27-year-old was then arrested and the child, who was found in the foot well of his vehicle, was taken to hospital and released the following day.
 
Smith was jailed for two years and two months at Wolverhampton Crown Court on 11 May following a trial.
 
He was jailed for 16 months for dangerous driving, two months for assault by beating and eight months for assault/ill-treat/neglect/abandon a child/young person likely to cause unnecessary suffering/injury. He was also sentenced to five months for assault a person thereby occasioning them actual bodily harm to run concurrently.
 
He was acquitted of false imprisonment and sexual assault.
 
Detective Constable Martin Ottey, from force CID, said: “Smith took a young child without his mother’s knowledge and put its life at risk by driving extremely dangerously and reaching speeds way over the speed limit.
 
“He put the child, the officers and himself in danger and it’s a miracle no one was seriously injured. Despite his best efforts to get away, officers arrested him and he’s now been brought to justice for his actions.”