Man admits trying to kill 4 children by driving into Barnsley pub wall

A man’s admitted trying to kill four young children by hitting them with a hammer and then crashing a car into a wall in Barnsley.

Owen Scott, 29, from Hampshire was arrested after the car he was driving crashed into a pub in Oxspring in August last year.

Four children were in the vehicle - two girls, aged seven and eight, and two boys aged 21 months and nine months.

They were all taken to hospital in a serious condition, but police were concerned that not all of the injuries had been caused by the collision.

At a previous hearing, prosecutors said Scott had used a hammer to inflict blows on the children in the car and had then driven deliberately at the front wall of The Travellers Inn on the A629 Copster Lane.

Today Scott stood in the dock at Sheffield Crown Court wearing a grey buttoned-up shirt and dark trousers to plead guilty to four charges of attempted murder and one charge of dangerous driving.

He spoke only to confirm his name and enter his pleas.

No details of the incident were given during the short hearing but Michelle Colborne QC, defending, said: “In relation to the events in the car he has little or no memory''.

Miss Colborne said her client had undergone a psychiatric evaluation and although he was found to be suffering from a “short-lived psychosis'' at the time, this was not enough to amount to a psychiatric defence to attempted murder.

She said: “There is mitigation which demonstrates that, at the time, it was likely he was suffering from a psychosis, short lived, affecting his ability to rational thought and self control, but falls short of a defence.''

The grey Dacia Logan was travelling along Copster Lane when it left the road and crashed into the front wall of the pub at about 12.25am on August 23.

Scott, of Heather Road, Fawley, was remanded in custody by the judge, Mrs Justice O'Farrell, who said more psychiatric reports were needed.

He will be sentenced on February 15