A THUG has been jailed for 18 months after he drove his car at a 14-year-old football fan then sped off and left him injured.

Nathan Mortimer, from Glasgow, hit the schoolboy after a Motherwell game, with his Mercedes who was, “flipped over the bonnet.”

The teenager had watched his team play Queen’s Park at Hampden earlier that day and was walking to Mount Florida train station with friends.

Mortimer, 21, sped off from Bolton Road, and left the teenager - who cannot be identified - injured on the ground.

A passer by helped the child and an ambulance was phoned and Mortimer was later identified as the driver.

Mortimer, from Baillieston, Glasgow, was originally charged with attempted murder but it was later changed to assault to severe injury and the danger of life on July 15, last year.

He pleaded guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court to the assault charge and yesterday was jailed for his crime.

Sheriff Martin Jones QC sentenced him to 18 months, and disqualified him from driving for two years and nine months and imposed a football banning order for the same length of time.

The court heard the 14-year-old Motherwell fan and his friends had been at a football match against Queen’s Park at Hampden, and left the stadium around 5pm.

They became aware of a group of males and the two groups, “began to exchange insults.”

Mortimer then arrived in his blue Mercedes and some of the males who had been with the schoolboy threw bottles towards his car, and some hit the windscreen.

Mortimer was described by witnesses as driving slowly at first then with “hard acceleration, revving loudly.”

The court was told the boy was facing the car and attempted to run towards the pavement but the accused drove deliberately at him and struck him on the body.