A teenager who repeatedly ran over two young women in his car struck their bodies “like a speed bump”, a court has heard.

McCauley Cox, 19, is accused of deliberately driving into a crowd of people in his Ford people carrier after a fight broke out outside a nightclub in Newport.

On Tuesday one witness told Newport Crown Court he believed Cox had been “going for” victims Sophie Poole and Emma Nicholls in his black Ford C-Max, before he and others on the street began to try and smash its windscreen.

Nathan Rumble, who was outside the Courtyard nightclub on Cambrian Road at the time, said: “The car went straight up into a crowd of people. I heard girls screaming.

“I saw people go down. The girls were under it the first time, under the front end, under the bumper.

“The car reversed back over the girls. It went back approximately where it was in the beginning. Then he revved the engine and then went off again.

“The second time I saw the car go over the girls again.

“The car looked like it went over a speed bump. But knowing what was going on I assumed it was one of the girls.

“There was a lot of screaming going on.”

Mr Rumble said he and other men began attacking the car after witnessing Cox hit the young women, adding: “It was wrong. He was going for them.

“You can’t just hit someone twice and not know what you are doing.

“I’d never been so angry. I was angry at the driver. He’d run over some girls. I don’t know who does that.”

Prosecutor James Wilson told the court on Monday Cox had deliberately driven his car at a man who was fighting with his two friends, only to miss him and instead strike Miss Poole and Miss Nicholls who were sitting on a kerb.

The university friends suffered “really serious injuries”, with Miss Poole needing specialist skin grafts and Miss Nicholls suffering a lacerated spleen.

Mr Wilson said Cox had admitted unlawfully injuring the two young women, but denies his intention had been to drive his car into the unidentified male.

Cox, from John Ireland Close, Newport, denies two counts of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

The trial continues.