Jail for Kyle Johnson, for assault at Crow's Nest holiday park and 'terrifying' driving at 100mph with children in back seat during police chase

A notorious thug has been jailed for over three years after glassing a man in a holiday park, assaulting a barlady, then getting in a car - allegedly very drunk - and leading police on a 17-mile chase in which he drove “like a lunatic” and sped through a quaint country village at over 100mph.
Kyle JohnsonKyle Johnson
Kyle Johnson

Kyle Johnson, 29, caused havoc in the Bar & Function Room at the Crow’s Nest holiday park near Filey where his drunken antics in front of families and children enjoying a magic show were causing bar staff grave concerns.

When a young female bartender warned Johnson about his behaviour, he and another woman assailed her with a foul-mouthed volley of abuse, York Crown Court heard.

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Johnson “jabbed” her just under the eye with his finger, then pushed her to the floor, said prosecutor Stephanie Hancock.

See police chase photo and report HEREThe loutish Wetherby man then struck a man over the head with a glass beer bottle for having the temerity to come to the barlady’s aid.

The named victim “slumped down” at the bar “feeling dizzy”. He suffered a three-inch wound which required surgical gluing at hospital.

“The defendant (then) swings punches at another man who tried to intervene, and a melee broke out - all in front of children,” said Ms Hancock.

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Johnson then hopped in his Vauxhall Astra and sped away with three young children in the back seat and a woman in the front passenger seat. The youngsters - who were not Johnson’s children - were not wearing seatbelts.

Johnson “accelerated off at such high speed that witnesses reported burning rubber and tyres screeching”.

He sped down the A64 towards Scarborough at “very-fast” speeds on the wrong side of the road and overtook three cars as he approached a roundabout, causing a female motorist to brake sharply and take refuge on a grass verge to avoid a collision. The woman’s six-year-old daughter was “terrified and hysterical”.

Police spotted Johnson on the A64 near Eastfield but he sped away after the blue lights came on, veering onto the oncoming lane, narrowly avoiding another car, then driving the wrong way around a roundabout at Staxton.

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Police laid a spiked ‘stinger’ on the opposite carriageway at Potter Brompton to try to burst his tyres, buthe spotted it as he was overtaking a car and swerved out of the way.

Johnson then bombed through Sherburn village “largely on the wrong side of the road” at 100mph, with scant regard for the 40mph speed limit. He then streaked through “very-small” gaps in the traffic as he tore through West Heslerton, where he braked “sharply” and put the car into reverse – trying to ram the pursuing police car, which just managed to reverse out of the way.

The officer decided to abandon the chase but Johnson rammed the police car anyway before speeding away again.

His “terrifying” rampage finally came to an end a short way up the A64 when he pulled over in Scampston, got out of the car and ran across some fields. Meanwhile, the female passenger got into the driver’s seat, and was arrested.

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Johnson, of Hudson Close, Wetherby, was arrested in a field nearby after a short foot chase. He was charged with dangerous driving, failing to stop, driving while disqualified and without insurance, assault occasioning actual bodily harm and common assault. He admitted all the offences and appeared for sentence on Tuesday.

Police are currently awaiting blood-toxicology results to determine whether he was also drink-driving.

Ms Hancock said the Bank Holiday mayhem started at about 7pm on May 26, when Johnson and the named female were “apparently drunk” and shouting and swearing in front of children, “disrupting the children’s show”.

The man who was glassed by Johnson said he and his family had to cut short their holiday due to his injuries, which also included a suspected broken nose allegedly caused by a blow from the female who was with Johnson.

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The court heard that Johnson had a long and varied criminal record comprising 78 offences, including aggravated vehicle-taking, wounding, ABH, robbery, breaching ASBOs, drink-driving and driving while disqualified. At the time of the incident in Filey, he was on prison licence after being released from a long prison stretch for dangerous driving imposed in November 2016.

Judge Sean Morris said Johnson had “behaved like a thug” at the holiday park and “drove like a lunatic”.

“How people weren’t killed I do not know,” he added. “The public needs some respite from you.”

Johnson - who was laughing and joking with friends in the public gallery before and after sentence - was jailed for three-and-a-half years and given a three-year driving ban.