A TEENAGER was warned he faces a “substantial” custodial sentence after a jury found him guilty of deliberately ploughing into two young women in his Ford C-Max and causing them serious injuries outside a nightclub.

McCauley Cox, 19, of John Ireland Close, Newport, was convicted of causing Sophie Poole, 24, and Emma Nicholls, 23, grievous bodily harm with intent at the city’s The Courtyard venue on Cambrian Road.

He had denied the charges during the four-day trial.

It took the jury 90 minutes to find the defendant guilty on both counts, the offences committed at around 5.30am on Sunday, April 29.

*Warning: Graphic footage*

Prosecutor James Wilson said the defendant had serious previous convictions including possessing heroin with intent to supply and dangerous driving.

The latter offence, he said, related to a police chase along the M4 from Swindon last year during which Cox reached speeds of 120mph and smashed through the toll barriers on the Severn Bridge before he was arrested in Newport.

He had also breached an order just days before he injured university friends Miss Poole and Miss Nichols after being sentenced for battery for headbutting an ex-girlfriend.

South Wales Argus:

(CCTV was played to the jury during McCauley Cox's trial)

Judge Daniel Williams remanded Cox in custody and told him: “You face a substantial sentence in a young offender institute because of what you did on April 29.”

He said the defendant had exhibited “outrageous behaviour”.

Cox will be sentenced tomorrow.

Mr Wilson told jury that the defendant drove over the two friends, who knew each other from university, as they sat on a kerb waiting for a taxi after the club had just closed at around 5.30am.

He said: “Miss Poole’s face was pressed to the floor. She was screaming for him to stop and she blacked out.

“She suffered serious friction burns and skin loss to her chest and arms. There were tyre marks on her."

He added that Miss Nichols’ spleen was split.

The jury were told 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 was driving and had left the other two to go and get his car in High Street before returning to the Cambrian Road exit of the Courtyard.

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 said the defendant deliberately drove at him but ended up hitting Miss Poole and Miss Nicholls.

Cox claimed he had accidentally ran over the two clubbers after becoming "frightened" by revellers threatening to "batter" him.