A teenage motorcyclist sustained life-changing injuries when he was struck by a drink driver who drove off without checking whether his victim was alive or dead.

Ryan Kneen, described in court as a ’Jekyll and Hyde character’, was this week beginning a three-year jail term after being convicted of dangerous driving.

His 16-year-old victim was in court and sitting alongside his family in the packed public gallery to see the driver sentenced.

He had been knocked off his motorcycle by a stolen car on the Ballahutchin Straight in Union Mills at about 11pm on Saturday, April 15 this year.

Kneen didn’t stop after the accident, leaving his victim in the road with an open head wound and bleeding heavily.

Fortunately, he was discovered by other drivers. He had suffered a fractured skull, multiple breaks to his hip and pelvis and extensive lacerations to his forehead.

Kneen had pleaded guilty to causing serious bodily harm by dangerous driving, taking his partner’s Renault Clio without consent and driving while disqualified.

He had also admitted drink driving, driving without insurance and failing to stop after a collision.

Kneen was already disqualified from driving until February 2021 when he got behind the wheel, two and half times the drink-drive limit.

Deemster Alastair Montgomerie told him: ’You knew you were disqualified from driving. You knew you had no insurance. You had been drinking all day.’

He said that after the impact on the windscreen of the Clio, the defendant had driven off without stopping to see how his victim was.

’That might have meant the difference between life and death for your victim,’ the Deemster told him.

’We are fortunate in having him in court with us today.’

Kneen, 26, of Close-y-Lhergy, Union Mills, had previous convictions. He was disqualified for five years for drink driving in December 2013.

But just three months later he was back in court for drink driving, taking a vehicle without consent and driving while disqualified and without insurance, after crashing his mother’s car - and was jailed for 24 weeks and banned from driving for seven years.

The Deemster said the defendant, a father-of-two, was ’very much a Jekyll and Hyde character’ who had a strong work ethic and was a family man but also had a ’darker side’.

But he gave him full credit for his guilty plea to the dangerous driving charge at his first appearance, which meant his young victim did not have to relive in court the trauma of what he had been through.

The Deemster said Kneen had shown no remorse initially during his police interview but that ’it was clear you were horrified by the result of your actions. You should be.

’You should be absolutely disgusted by your actions,’ he added.

Pointing out the number of friends and family in court to support him, sitting in court on the jury benches, the Deemster told him: ’You are a very fortunate man. All I would ask you is to bear in mind your mother and father, your parents, your two young children, your other family members and friends. They are all victims of your offending.’

He told Kneen that his actions will continue to have a profound effect on the teenager. ’You might want to reflect that no other person, no other family, should be put through this.

’The choice is yours - make sure you take the right one,’ he said.

Addressing the victim, he said: ’You have been extremely brave in dealing with what has happened to you and even more brave in attending court today.

’No amount of compensation can compensate you.

’I would simply express my hope that you are now able today to move on. I appreciate no sentence I pass is in reality going to be sufficient.’

The Deemster said in view of Kneen’s ’flagrant disregard’ for the rules of the road, he was more than justified in imposing a sentence with a starting point close to the maximum one.

He jailed him for a total of three years and disqualified him from driving for six years after which Kneen must retake his test.

The Deemster made no order for compensation, saying he would leave that entirely in the hands of the victim.

In a statement, the family of the young motorcyclist said they wished to thank all those who stopped to help at the time and the emergency services for their support throughout.