A KEEN runner lost her right leg after being pinned against the boot of her Mini by a learner driver who had been given a car the day before the crash.

Steven Johnson was drunk and high on drugs when he lost control of his Ford Focus in Pine Road, Winton on September 27 last year.

Witnesses heard tyres screeching as the 22-year-old left the Talbot Pub car park before almost immediately losing control of the vehicle and hitting a parked Volkswagen Polo.

The car then shunted forwards, hitting Natalie Griffiths, who was standing by the open boot of her Mini. The Mini moved forward an entire car length as a result of collision's force.

Miss Griffiths, then 34, suffered serious injuries to her right leg and collapsed in the road screaming for help.

Johnson, who only held a provisional licence, got out of his car while it was still moving before "sprinting" away from the scene.

When police arrived to arrest him a short time later, a taxi booked under a fake name was waiting outside his home.

As officers went into his home in Richmond Park Avenue, he walked towards them with his hands outstretched "as if to give himself up" before saying: "I surrender. It was me. I hit her and ran off."

He then asked: "Is she ok? I can't believe I ran. I'm f****** w*******."

He also told police he smoked cannabis "every day" and said: "I'm an animal."

Johnson was found to be almost one-and-a-half times the drink drive limit.

He was also three times the limit for tetrahydrocannabinol - the principal psychoactive constituent of cannabis - and more than twice the limit for benzoylecgonine, the main metabolite of cocaine.

Prosecuting at Bournemouth Crown Court, Dawn Hyland said Miss Griffiths knew "instantly" she would lose her leg.

In a statement made to police, the victim said her leg had been broken in several places and "crumbled" underneath her as she tried to get away.

"Blood was pouring through my hands and I was screaming," she said.

Witnesses who ran to help described the victim's screams as "blood-curdling and haunting".

Miss Griffiths was airlifted to hospital. When she arrived, she told doctors: "I know you're going to have to cut it off."

Despite an operation to try and save her right leg, the limb was later amputated.

Mitigating, Tom Horder said Johnson had been an "emotional wreck" since the crash.

"This is a young man who who does now know the seriousness of his behaviour," he said.

"He said to police involved in transporting him away to the police station, 'I can't believe I ran off.

"'If I could do anything to put myself in her position, I would. If i could put myself up for the electric chair, I would.'"

Johnson, who had been working as a security guard at a hospital before the crash, has been drinking and taking drugs since the age of 13, the court heard.

He admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving, two counts of drug driving, drink driving, failing to stop, driving without insurance and driving without a licence.

Judge Brian Forster QC sentenced the defendant to three years in prison as well as a five-and-a-half year disqualification.