A man who ran over a pedestrian and dragged him for more than half a mile has been jailed for at least 30 years for his murder.
Martin Eastwood, 22, driving a stolen Ford S-Max, ploughed into father-of-two Liam Dent in revenge for a minor row outside a pub in Chessington, Surrey.
Having knocked Mr Dent down, Eastwood, from nearby Epsom, drove at speeds of up to 32mph, dragging his screaming victim along in the early hours of Saturday 26 July, 2019.
Mr Dent was still conscious after being freed, and his family rushed to the scene in southwest London.
But he had suffered horrific injuries and was pronounced dead at the scene.
On Wednesday, Judge Wendy Joseph jailed Eastwood for life with a minimum term of 30 years after suggesting he must have heard his victim screaming.
Recalling the evidence of an expert who said dragging a body would have been like “driving with the handbrake on”, she said if Eastwood didn’t realise it straight away “he must have realised it almost immediately after”.
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“No one,” she said, “should die like that. No mother should have to sit in the road with her dying son on whom those injuries had been inflicted.
“There is no way around it, this was a cruel death.”
Earlier, Stacey Dent told her son’s killer she “could see all his injuries” and realised “he had to be in so much pain.
“I could see immediately despite the attempts to keep him with us that he was not going to survive and my heart was completely ripped apart and it remains that way. I cry every single day.
“He was tortured and he was left for dead screaming for help. Why couldn’t you have just stopped and spared my son his life?”
Eastwood was found guilty of murder following a trial at the Old Bailey.
He had used a car as a weapon twice before, the court heard, inflicting multiple fractures on a cyclist in 2018 and leaving a man with abrasions the year after.
Judge Joseph handed Eastwood concurrent sentences for grievous bodily harm with intent, attempted grievous bodily harm with intent, and robbery.
His friend Daniel Morris, 22, who had driven behind in a Volvo after Eastwood had run over Mr Dent, frantically honking his horn for him to stop, admitted manslaughter and was jailed for five-and-a-half-years.
Eastwood’s 19-year-old girlfriend, Jasmine Robinson, of Epsom, was found guilty of assisting an offender and given a two-year sentence suspended for two years.
The judge banned Eastwood from driving for 10 years upon his release.
