A 21-year-old who drove into a crowded night club has been found guilty of two charges of attempted murder.

Mohammed Abdul of McMillan Street, Deptford, south east London, admitted the way he drove into Blake's nightclub in Gravesend was "very dangerous" but denied two charges of attempting to murder people in the vicinity of the club.

He also denied an alternative charge of attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent and two of causing grievous bodily harm with intent.

Abdul drives his car into Blake's nightclub

He admitted two offences of causing serious injury by dangerous driving.

At Maidstone Crown Court today, the jury found him guilty on both charges during his retrial, reaching a unanimours verdict after just 90 minutes.

The court heard about 10 minutes after being ejected from Blake’s in Queen Street, Gravesend, on March 17 last year, he started to drive his Suzuki Vitara down an alleyway at the side of the club.

A bouncer tried to stop him, but he continued as staff and customers leapt out of the way.

He will be sentenced tomorrow.

Danny Moore had told jurors in his closing speech that Abdul was guilty of “an appalling piece of driving”, but submitted he was not trying to commit mass murder.

“The suggestion he is trying to – wanted to – kill people is too much,” he said. “It is too much to say on the evidence that night he intended it to be the last day on earth for Katie Wells.

“It is a big proposition that what he wanted to do was cause mass murder, multiple murder.”

Following conviction, Mr Moore told the judge, Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb: “I hope I make a sensible concession that this is, of course, a serious offence.

“There is nothing in his background suggestive of a propensity to violence. This is completely and utterly out of character. Why he behaved in that way on that night may be forever something of a mystery.

“Obviously, intoxication played its part. I invite the court to conclude he has not demonstrated anything in his history like this. This was a one-off aberration with substantial and terrible consequences.

“He was a very young man at the time. This will be long and difficult years for him in custody. This is his first period of imprisonment.”

“Obviously, intoxication played its part..." Danny Moore, defending

Mr Moore said because of the high profile nature of the case Abdul had been a Category A prisoner in top security Belmarsh Prison in south east London, which had “a difficult regime indeed”.

The judge praised Blake’s door staff for the way they behaved during the incident.

“It seems clear to me they did everything they could to protect him (Abdul) and the lives of the clientele,” she said.

Teenager Katie Wells, a team assistant at a London law firm, said in a victim statement read out in court that she had been affected “emotionally, financially, physically, and on a basic day-to-day basis”.

She said: “In some respects I think I was one of the unlucky ones as I was one of the more seriously injured, but actually I believe I am lucky to be alive after what happened as it could so easily have been even worse.

“I suffered a fractured pelvis and an injury to my elbow as I was dragged under Abdul’s car and across the marquee dance floor.

“I spent two nights in King’s College Hospital and I was in considerable pain. My injuries are still causing me difficulties today.

“I still have to occasionally use a crutch and walk with a limp because it hurts for me to put full weight on my left side. I had to return to hospital for physio and have had numerous scans.

“I was only fully discharged from the orthopaedic clinic last month. I was told that due to the main injury being in my pelvic area I could suffer fertility problems in the future, but I do not know whether this is the case.

“It has caused me to worry about it a lot though. The soft tissue injury to my left elbow also causes me problems.

“I went back to work for two days in May but couldn’t cope, so I was signed off for further two weeks..." victim Katie Wells

“After the incident I had two months off work. I couldn’t drive and wasn’t able to walk so couldn’t really do anything.

“Any occasions I did go out, like to Bluewater for example, I had to be put in a wheelchair, which made me feel embarrassed and self-conscious, and I constantly felt like people were looking at me and talking about me.

“I went back to work for two days in May but couldn’t cope, so I was signed off for further two weeks. I was paid sick leave but my employer threatened to reduce my sick pay which caused me financial strain.

“I am still not back to work fulltime as due to my pelvic injury, I can’t stand up for too long. I have to wear a badge make sure I get a seat on the train.

“I used to walk to the station but now drive because I can’t walk far. I still occasionally use crutches because although the fracture has healed, the ligaments and soft tissue damage I sustained may take a year or 18 months to heal.

“In the weeks after the attack at Blake’s I suffered nightmares and was in a lot of pain. Even now, I feel anxious in certain social situations, like when I am at a party in a crowd of people, for example,

“I will think that a car is going to come driving through the crowd. I do things like look around at where I am, checking that there is nowhere that a car could drive through to get to me.

“In May, I was assessed as having anxiety and depression – all of which is a result of this incident, and I am on the list to see a counsellor about it.

“Other family members have also been affected. My mum didn’t sleep for about two months after the incident and she worries about me constantly.

“I have been in court for the trial and when the CCTV was first played I was literally holding back the tears, watching myself being run over. I tried to hold it together as I didn’t want Abdul to see me upset.

"All of this when all I was doing on that evening at Blake’s was having a fun night out with friends...” Katie Wells

“I wish that the person who did this to me could just feel how much pain I am in for one day so he can know what my life has been like since he ran me over - not because I want him to be in pain, just because I want him to know how he has affected my life.

“Not being able to sleep because of the pain, not being able to walk properly, having to take medication all the time, re-living what happened in my mind.”

Miss Wells, who was 18 at the time, added: “All of this when all I was doing on that evening at Blake’s was having a fun night out with friends.”

Libby Clark, from the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “It was the prosecution’s case that the defendant made a determined and deliberate attempt to kill people who offered no threat to him by using his car as a weapon.

“Not only did he carefully and deliberately manoeuvre his car into a relatively narrow alleyway, but he stopped and waited nine seconds, before then driving into people at considerable speed. That gave him time to consider what he was about to do.

“It was sheer luck that no-one was killed that night, but the impact on those caught up cannot be underestimated.

“Aside from the physical injuries they suffered, they had to experience the nightmare of having a car hurtle towards them with no warning as they were enjoying a night out.”