A ROID-RAGE driver who mowed down his girlfriend after deliberately mounting a pavement is starting a prison sentence of nearly three years.

His 22-year-old victim was thrown in to the air and suffered a broken leg when frenzied Stephen Bolton drove into her following a drunken argument, a court heard.

Bolton's barrister, Laurie Scott, said the 22-year-old - who regularly went to the gym - knew he should not have been drinking while taking steroids to build himself up for a beach holiday.

When he was out in a pub, Bolton got involved in a row about a game of pool and bit a man three times - on the chest, the left upper arm and on his neck.

Then on his way home, Bolton argued with his girlfriend and sunk his teeth into her right hand, prosecutor Shaun Dodds told Teesside Crown Court.

A passing motorist who tried to intervene was punched before Bolton continued with the assault on his partner, biting her on both sides of the temple.

After fleeing the scene when another driver stopped, Bolton turned up in his car at the home of his girlfriend's aunt in South Moor, County Durham.

He the punched his girlfriend's cousin in the face when she protested about his throwing a puppy around the inside of the Renault Clio.

Bolton drove around the street three times, before spotting his girlfriend on the path. He mounted the kerb with the Clio, revved the engine and drove straight at her.

The court heard his partner - who was bitten on the hand last year, when Bolton was given just a caution - required an operation to insert metal pins in her right leg.

Laurie Scott, mitigating, said: "It is something he never intends to repeat, and tells me how sorry he feels for (her) and causing this degree of injury.

"In his words, he acted like a different person that night. He has lost everything. He has been remanded in custody since these offences last August.

"He was using steroids at the gym - a young man with an element of vanity involved. He had a drink that night and realises drink and steroids don't mix."

Jailing him for two years and ten months, Judge Howard Crowson told Bolton: "This was a catalogue of very bad behaviour, and very unusual behaviour."

Bolton, of Malvern Terrace, Stanley, admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving, two actual bodily harm assaults charges and common assault.

Last night Zoe Davis of Addaction, a leading North-East drug, alcohol and mental health treatment charity, warned that evidence shows prolonged use of steroids does increase levels of aggression.

“Steroids and alcohol mixed together can increase violence and aggression and lead to bad decision making," she added. “But poly drug use of any description increases the risks to the individual and makes it much more dangerous.

“I know from having worked in needle exchanges that there are more and more people coming in through using steroids. Their use has been growing within the gym community, there’s a black market and they can be taken in the form of injections or tablets.

“The problem is these people often don’t identify themselves as having a drugs issue. They don’t connect the dots and the attitude is ‘it’s okay to go and have a good drink’.

“Because of its health impacts the advice would be don’t do it and go instead to their local service and get help and advice.”