A THUG who tortured a disabled woman walked out of court laughing after being freed on a "farcical" legal technicality - even though an angry judge said he should be jailed for a "long, long time".

Scott Floyd, 26, celebrated with his arms aloft joked "he walks free from court" as he exited the building.

Teesside Crown Court was told Floyd and an accomplice - a fugitive hiding in Spain despite an international arrest warrant - had tortured their victim.

They demanded her car and when she refused Floyd kicked and punched her legs until they were "dead" and then snatched her keys.

The pair crashed and wrote off her car and Floyd was originally charged with robbery.

However, the legal definition of robbery is that the intention has to be to "permanently deprive" the owner of the vehicle and the Crown Prosecution Service decided it could not prove that was his aim.

He admitted the lesser charges of aggravated vehicle taking and assault by beating, which were classed as summary offences - giving Recorder Eric Elliott, QC, no option but a maximum six-month jail term.

And because Floyd had already been remanded in custody for 139 days - longer than the jail term - he had to be immediately freed.

The judge hit out as he allowed Floyd to leave, telling the court: “He’ll walk out whatever I do. It’s a farcical situation. We’re completely and utterly tied.”

He told Floyd: “On the face of it, you deserve to put behind bars for a number of years. You should be put behind bars for a long, long time, but I’m unable to do so.”

Floyd saw the vulnerable disabled woman, who suffered severe pains in her legs, as an “easy target”, the court heard.

He bothered the troubled drug user, offered to buy her drugs and often went to her home in Grangetown, Middlesbrough, said prosecutor Richard Bennett.

Floyd and his unnamed associate repeatedly asked to use her car.

She refused but they put pressure on her and would use the vehicle, which she relied on for transport, without her consent.

On April 2 this year they went to see her and pestered her to use the car again.

Floyd kicked her to the hip as she came out of her bathroom, then sat next to her and hit her knees, causing them to be “almost like dead legs,” said Mr Bennett.

The blows, struck where she had her disability, caused her "immense pain and bruising."

The men found her handbag, took her car keys and drove off. Floyd crashed the car, writing it off, at about 2am.

Fearing reprisals, the victim initially told the police she was driving the Ford Fiesta.

She had to move out of her home, feared returning to Grangetown and still had to pay finance on the wrecked car.

In a statement she said she was hurt physically and mentally and felt like she had to look over her shoulder.

She added: “I hope the defendant pays for the torture he’s put me through.”

Floyd, of Westcroft Road, Grangetown, was charged with robbery, which carries a maximum sentence of life behind bars but the charge was discontinued by the CPS.

Mr Bennett said: “He’s very lucky because of a legal technicality.”

Recorder Elliott added: “If this had been a robbery, he would have been facing years.

“It’s purely and simply because the prosecution, quite rightly, have had to redraft the charges in light of the evidence and it wasn’t possible to prove the robbery.”

Just six days before the crimes, Floyd was given a chance by magistrates with a community order for thefts.

He had numerous previous convictions for violence and dishonesty.

The judge said the victim’s courage contrasted with Floyd’s “cowardly acts” against a smaller, vulnerable woman.

He said the sentence would not properly reflect Floyd’s “shameful conduct” as he was constrained to pass a sentence ensuring his immediate release.

“With great reluctance I impose this sentence, but impose it I must,” he added.

He gave Floyd a five-month prison sentence and banned him from driving for one year.

His victim, a mother-of-two who is in her twenties, fled the house after the attack.

It emerged Floyd is a neighbour who frequently bullied her

A neighbour said: "She is a nice lass but a bit too trusting for her own good. She's the mother of two lovely little kids but she's small and walks with difficulty.

"Floyd is a bully, he lived up the road from her and he was always in her house taking advantage of her and using her car when he wanted.

"There was no way she could have stood up to him, she's a tiny little thing. People were pleased when he was caught and thought he'd go to jail.

"It was a shock to hear he'd got away with it, he'll think he can do whatever he likes now.

"She left her house after the attack and was living in a refuge, it must have left her petrified."

Former magistrate David Hines, from Jarrow, South Tyneside, who runs the National Victims Association, said: "The Crown Prosecution Service lawyers should hang their head in shame.

"It's disgraceful that he was able to walk free, a mockery of justice.

"That poor woman was victimised, traumatised and left unable to go back to her home and he walks away from that laughing.

"I can't understand how they were unable to charge him with robbery. He beat her, took the car and wrote it off. How is that not permanently depriving her of her property?

"I feel so sorry for her and the thousands of people up and down this country who feel let down by the justice system.

"When I sat on the bench as a magistrate 20 years ago victims and their families would come to court to see justice being done.

"These days the public galleries are empty because the public has lost faith in the courts and its cases like this one that are to blame."