A MAN accused of knocking over and seriously injuring a mother-of-three looked drunk and had red eyes when he got behind the wheel, a court was told.

And Richard Lee Bradley tried to run over a group of friends on the night Elaine Haworth was hit by the car, Preston Crown Court heard.

Bradley, 18, of Whitby Drive, Blackburn, has denied wounding Mrs Elaine Haworth from Darwen with intent. He has pleaded guilty to unlawful wounding and driving while disqualified.

Mrs Haworth suffered head and pelvic injuries after the incident outside her house in Priory Grange on August 15 last year.

A jury heard that Bradley, nicknamed Cheeky, had joined a group of girls in St Peter's Primary School grounds, Turncroft, with two friends known as Bingi and Wayne at 9pm the same night.

One girl said Cheeky "looked drunk" and had red eyes. When asked by Mr Richard Butcher, prosecuting, how she knew, she said: "I could just tell he was drunk."

She said Bingi drove her and two friends five minutes to the Priory Grange estate where one of them was due to meet her boyfriend.

She told the court that the girl was sitting in the back on a boy's knee and he had tried to kiss her. She said the girl had told him she was not interested.

When the group arrived at Priory Grange, the girl said Cheeky asked the other girl's boyfriend and asked: "What would you do if I smacked your girlfriend?"

She said they argued and Bradley got back into the car on the driver's side and tried to run them over.

"We were in the roadway and had to hide behind a parked car," she added. "He would have knocked us over if we had not hid behind the car."

She said Cheeky drove off, first in reverse, "faster than a normal car does."

Bradley's girlfriend said seven youngsters had travelled from the school in the car to Abbey Place -- five of them on the back seat.

She said she did not know what had caused Bradley to start the argument at Priory Grange but stood in front of him because she thought he was going to start fighting. She added the group "were going to get hit" if they had not moved out of the way of the car.

(Proceeding)