Driver handed 10-year sentence after ramming pedestrians, including teenager, with SUV in Airbnb row
16 June 2025, 22:57
A 34-year-old man has been handed a 10-year sentence after ramming two pedestrians, including a teenager, with an SUV, sending them "up into the air".
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Johnathan Newbury hit two people "at speed" with a black car in the Cathays area of Cardiff after getting into a row over an Airbnb rental in July 2024.
The force of the impact sent the men up "into the air".
Ryan Jones, one of the victims, received injuries to his pelvis and right foot.
The other man, who was a teenager at the time of the incident, lost consciousness on arrival at the hospital, became forgetful and reported pains to his ribs.
Newbury and another man were acquitted of attempted murder by a jury in March, but he was found guilty of inflicting and attempting to inflict grievous bodily harm.
He was also found guilty of having a blade.
Judge Jeremy Jenkins handed Newbury a 10-year prison sentence at Merthyr Crown Court on Monday.
The judge said there had been an "element of revenge" in the incident, and the vehicle had been "driven at speed".
He said: "On July 4 2024 you were present at an Airbnb in Bruce Street in Cardiff, the two complainants had also booked accommodation at the same address, and there had been an earlier altercation between them and a number of men at the address.
"About midnight, CCTV cameras spotted a dark SUV vehicle entering Bruce Street and four men alight.
"These men were armed with what has been described as a 'zombie-knife' and were obviously, from their demeanour, intent on violence towards (the complainants)."
When Mr Jones and the teenager fled, Newbury and the group got into the SUV to chase after them.
The judge said: "The vehicle is seen to speed up, to drive on the wrong side of the road into the junction and to deliberately collide with the two men, throwing them up in the air and causing serious bodily injury (to the teenager)."
Passing his sentence, the judge said reports showed that Newbury had not accepted his guilt and he had shown "no remorse at all for the offence you have been found guilty of".
Asked if he understood his sentence, Mr Newbury said "no".
Prosecutor James Wilson described the incident, saying the victims had arrived at the Airbnb on July 4 to find a woman shouting up at one of the windows, with her telling them her boyfriend was inside.
The men inside the rental then began shouting racial abuse at the complainants.
The two men left the house but later returned.
Mr Wilson said: "The (CCTV) shows them coming back on to Bruce Street at just after 23.56pm.
"Their evidence was that she had told them that the males had left in a car and she warned them that 'they will bonnet you'."
Newbury was acquitted of racially aggravated intentional harassment at the trial.
The judge said Newbury will spend eight years in jail and two years on extended licence.
Once released, he will be banned from driving for two years.
