A jealous ex-boyfriend who drove a car into a man and attacked him with a baseball bat has been jailed.

Zaki Idris was caught on camera driving straight into the 35-year-old man in a pre-meditated attack, having waited for him for several hours.

Detectives sought to find a link between Idris and his victim and found he had tried to break into his ex-partner’s house in May 2021, after seeing the man’s car parked outside.

Idris, 29, was also found to have stalked the man for months before the attack on January 26, this year.

On the night of the attack, he waited in a black Citroen C4 for the man to leave Underground Gym in Camden Street, Portslade. He then drove directly at him, throwing him across the bonnet, before getting out and attacking him with the bat.

He also threatened to kill him.

The man managed to escape back into the gym and Idris fled across gardens and rooftops before being tackled by police and arrested.

Officers found a claw hammer and knife in his car.

Idris, of Manor Way in Brighton, was charged with attempted grievous bodily harm, possession of an offensive weapon, making threats to kill and dangerous driving and was detained under the Mental Health Act.

At Lewes Crown Court he pleaded guilty to all the charges. He initially argued the attack was not pre-meditated but it was revealed he had followed the man throughout December 2021 and January 2022. The final time was in the hour before the attack.

Photographs of the man were found on Idris’s phone.

Detective Constable Josh Bellamy said: “This was a violent, pre-meditated attack on a man who was, to all intents and purposes, a stranger to Zaki Idris.

“It is truly miraculous that the victim was not left severely injured or worse. Idris then led officers on a chase through gardens and on to rooftops, putting the safety of those officers and members of the public at risk.

"Thanks to the work of neighbourhood policing officers who were first on the scene, what could have been seen as an accidental collision was exposed as an attempt to severely injure an innocent man. As a result of the ensuing, complex investigation, a dangerous individual has been brought to justice.”

Idris was sentenced to four years and two months in prison and given a five-year restraining order.