Mohammed Suffi, 22, ploughed his Mercedes into a group of students outside of the Tunnel Club in the Jewellery Quarter
The scene outside Tunnel Club in Livery Street(Image: Joseph Walshe / SWNS)
A man who ran down a student outside a Birmingham nightclub has been cleared of attempted murder but found guilty of an alternative offence.
Mohammed Suffi, 22, ploughed his ‘powerful’ Mercedes into a crowd after a fight erupted at the Tunnel Club in the Jewellery Quarter on October 3 last year, during Fresher’s Week.
He inflicted ‘catastrophic injuries’ on Caliston Calistus who was dragged along by the vehicle.
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Five others were also injured. Suffi, from Aston, took the damaged Mercedes to an industrial park in Oldbury before fleeing the country.
Following his arrest he admitted dangerous driving. After a trial at Birmingham Crown Court, he was found not guilty of attempted murder but guilty of causing grievous bodily harm in the alternative.
Judge Paul Farrer KC adjourned sentencing until February 26 but told Suffi he would ‘inevitably receive a significant and immediate’ prison term.
Three other men who were convicted of affray will also be sentenced.
Judge Farrer ordered a pre-sentence report to be prepared which will consider whether Suffi is a ‘dangerous offender’.
The scene outside Tunnel Club in the Jewellery Quarter(Image: Birmz Is Grime / SWNS)
He told him: “You are a young man who has never previously been convicted of an offence. It’s going to assist the court in deciding the right length of sentence if I have the input from the probation service.”
Suffi and three others had gone to the Tunnel Club on October 3 last year.
Security staff were prompted to intervene in a dispute involving the group. The jury was told that earlier Suffi had been captured on CCTV holding a balloon, possibly containing nitrous oxide.
Around 2.20am he and his associates were ejected from the club but they ‘continued to act aggressively and did not let it go’, said prosecutor Daniel Oscroft.
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They returned around half-an-hour later and ‘instigated a full blown fight’ as people were leaving the venue.
Ms Oscroft said: “Suffi started to drive aggressively. The vehicle reversed and circled back and round and drove at pedestrians knocking people over.”
The court was told Mr Calistus became involved in a fight with another man which spilled into the road. Suffi drove directly at them.
The prosecutor continued: “You can see both Mr Calistus and the other male disappear under the front bumper.
“You see the vehicle rise and fall over the two bodies. Their bodies are further down the road.
“Suffi could have stopped. Instead he drove over them. He deliberately drove at them and drove over them.”
The jury was told Suffi swerved to try to hit further students as he sped away from the scene.
Mr Calistus said that he thought he was going to die and spent three weeks in hospital where he required major surgery.
He suffered fractured ribs, a fractured pelvis, a broken collar bone, broken shoulder blades, a broken neck and collapsed lungs.