A MAN has been jailed for deliberately running over a stepfather who subjected him to years of abuse as a child.

Nathan Kenny admitted killing Michael Fennah after hitting him with a car last December on Scott Avenue in Whiston.

Fennah, 52, had been married to Kenny’s mother for several months in 1991.

At the time Kenny was 13 and it had been a persistently abusive relationship with 6ft 3in Fennah described as “controlling”.

Liverpool Crown Court heard how the youngster and his mother were terrified of him and Kenny saw him abuse her.

Judge David Aubrey QC said that Fennah sexually abused Kenny causing him “shame and humiliation”.

Even after the marriage ended Fennah would still turn up at the family’s home.

Last year Kenny became anxious and fearful that Fennah was about to move into a flat opposite his mother’s home.

The move never materialised but the day before the killing Kenny’s five-year-old niece received a Christmas card from Fennah’s young son. But Kenny believed Fennah had written the card.

On the morning of December 17, Fennah was with a friend Lee Medwell when Kenny drove his Renault Megane on to the pavement and “slammed into him from behind”.

Gordon Cole QC prosecuting said: “The movement of the car threw Michael Fennah onto the bonnet then the windscreen of the car and then he landed on the floor.

"Having landed on the floor the defendant then drove his car over the body of Michael Fennah."

Paramedics and the North West air ambulance arrived but he died at the scene from head injuries.

Kenny drove off and went to his sister’s home telling her: “I’ve done it. I’ve killed Mick. I’ve run him over.”

Police found a note Kenny had written saying: “Sorry. I’m not evil. He was a bad man.”

Judge Aubrey said: “The trigger and background of this case was as a result of things said and done to you which were of an extremely grave character and which caused you to have a justified sense of being seriously wronged.

“The court is satisfied you have suffered great torment. You were undoubtedly suffering from post traumatic stress disorder which has included re-living abuse from the past which has impacted quite severely on your ability to form rational judgements and exercise self-control in relation to your step-father.

"It became self-consuming. I am quite satisfied that fixation related to one man."

Kenny was seen by two psychiatrists who said that he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder because of the treatment he suffered.

In a statement read in court, Kenny told them: It’s like I am back there. I see his face, the beatings. It’s just fear.”

Nick Johnson, QC, defending, said: "He has very little recollection of what happened which doesn't come as a surprise to either psychiatrist given the background."

Kenny’s friends and family clapped as he was sentenced to three years.

Having been in custody for six months it means that Kenny will serve less than a year.