THE schoolfriend of an Almondbury woman killed after being dragged by a car saw her knocked down and then lift her head a split second before the vehicle drove straight over her, a court heard.

Martin Hine told Leeds Crown Court yesterday that he had seen Jolene Potter-Connolly knocked down and then get trapped under the speeding car.

Miss Potter-Connolly, 23, of Broken Cross, was dragged for 180 yards under the vehicle and died outside the Visage nightclub in Folly Hall in the early hours of September 11 last year.

Eton Brewins, 26, of Field Head, Shepley, denies manslaughter and causing death by dangerous driving.

Mr Hine said he had met Jolene and her sister Tonya in the club and was walking back to his car accompanied by the sisters when he saw trouble flaring around a vehicle.

He said he saw six or seven men arguing and preparing to fight, before seeing another man, later identified as Eton Brewins, go to the back of a maroon Ford Escort and pull out a police-style extendable baton before shouting `Come on then'.

He added: "I told him to calm down and he threw it back in the boot but before the boot got slammed shut he reached back in, but I couldn't see what he had gone for."

Mr Hine said shortly after, the car, driven by Mr Brewins, set off in reverse. It was being driven by someone acting like an `idiot'.

He added: "The front of the car dipped down and the car jolted back."

Mr Hine said at this time the passenger door was open, which knocked some people over, with the driver clutching his door.

He added: "I saw it swing round as it went backwards. Jolene wasn't stood with the other two people. The two people fell onto the floor but the door caught Jolene and put her straight on the floor."

Prosecuting Rodney Jameson QC asked Mr Hine if he could see Jolene after she had been knocked over.

Mr Hine: "Yes."

Mr Jameson: "Where was she?"

Mr Hine: "Out the front of the car."

Mr Hine then went on to say Miss Potter-Connolly had lifted her head just as the car set off forwards.

He added: "He drove forward like an idiot. No respect for who was in the car park or anything else.

" It just set off."

Under cross examination, defence counsel Robert Smith QC put it to Mr Hine that the man had not got anything from the boot.

He added: "If I suggest to you that he never said `Come on then' but his words were `We don't want any trouble', as he waved the baton, what would you say?"

To which Mr Hine said: "No, that's wrong."

Mr Hine accepted that in his police statement when he said he had seen the driver get out and laugh after knocking down Miss Potter-Connolly, he may have been mistaken.

Mr Smith added: "You have in fact confused two separate incidents with the same car in which it reversed twice and have merged it into one."

Mark Hausdorf, another clubgoer, said he saw the car starting forward after knocking the people over.

He said: "The car started accelerating very fast and drove, I believe, over the girl. As the car moved forward, I couldn't see the girl anymore. One moment she was there, the next moment she wasn't."

Mr Hausdorf said he ran and jumped in front of the car to alert the driver.

He said he shouted at the driver's window but the car just carried on and he had to move.

Judge Mr Justice Wakerley asked Mr Hausdorf if he had seen Miss Potter-Connolly under the car, to which he said he had.

Mr Justice Wakerley: "When did you yourself see her under the car?"

Mr Hausdorf: "When it drove past me and I looked under the car and saw her legs."

Defence counsel Mr Francis Sheridan asked Mr Hausdorf if anyone in the car had heard him.

Mr Sheridan said: "There was no reaction from anyone in the car that gave you any indication that your words had been heard?"

Mr Hausdorf: "I don't know what was going on inside the car."

The trial continues