A TEENAGE defendant made a run for it from the dock as it emerged he was about to go to jail for two serious assaults yesterday.

Darren Waugh escaped from court one at Durham Crown Court, leaving two people injured in the process.

Waugh, 19, got away from the building, but was chased by police officers down nearby Old Elvet.

A senior prison officer eventually cornered Waugh in an alleyway near the Royal County Hotel.

Minutes later, Waugh was returned to court and placed in cells.

Judge Richard Lowden remanded him in custody, and he was sent to Castington Young Offenders' Institution, in Northumberland, last night.

He will return to court on a later date for sentence for two offences of assault causing grievous bodily harm, and also for the escape.

Waugh, of Skipper's Meadow, Ushaw Moor, near Durham, arrived at court on bail, awaiting sentence for one of the assaults, and on trial for the second.

But after he pleaded to the second offence his barrister, Ros Scott-Bell asked for the probation service to draw up an addition to a pre-sentence report.

When Judge Lowden indicated he was considering remanding Waugh in custody, the defendant made his escape bid.

A female dock officer suffered a suspected broken thumb and a back injury in trying to detain him. Court security officer Terry Barton, 59, from Chester-le-Street, was taken to the University Hospital of North Durham for surgery for a suspected broken wrist after falling badly attempting to prevent Waugh fleeing the building.