Van ram man jailed for punching driver and smashing her partner's car vows to clear name
Attacker claimed someone slashed tyres and scraped vehicle before he was beaten by woman's partner and another man after vicious assault
A man jailed for repeatedly punching 'Ulster's angriest driver' and ramming her partner's car through a fence has vowed to clear his name.
Paul Dunstan was pictured arriving at Downpatrick courthouse on Friday where he launched his appeal against his conviction and seven-month jail sentence for assaulting his former neighbour Tammy Sparkes.
Sparkes was dubbed the country's angriest driver earlier this year when she appeared in court to face her THIRD shocking road rage attack – none of which had anything to do with Mr Dunstan.
Those hat-trick of separate incidents saw the 29-year-old mum tear clumps of hair from a terrified woman, punch a police officer, repeatedly kick-a-car causing almost £2,000 worth of damage and grab a neighbour by the hair while driving her car – dragging the woman along.
Paul Dunstan
News in 90 Seconds - June 20th
But last month she gave evidence as the victim of an attack by Paul Dunstan of Drumglass Avenue in Bangor after the 43-year-old went berserk after someone slashed the tyres of his van and scraped the side of the £40,000 vehicle.
The pair lived beside each other for three years in Loverock Close in Bangor and had not got on well together.
Dunstan, who had 17 previous convictions, claimed he reacted after discovering someone had stabbed his tyres and keyed his car – something Tammy Sparkes and Stephen Elliott say had nothing to do with them.
Footage was shown to the judge at Ards Magistrates' Court which showed Dunstan, who ironically runs a car body repair business, repeatedly ramming Stephen Elliott's Peugeot 208 car – forcing it back over 30 yards through a corrugated iron fence and into the back garden of another house.
CCTV captures the altercation between Paul Dunstan, Stephen Elliott and Tammy Sparkes
CCTV footage
CCTV footage
Dunstan is seen in an altercation seconds later with Tammy Sparkes who went over to the van to remonstrate with him.
During the tussle he's seen swinging and connecting with several punches on Sparkes.
Her partner Stephen Elliott, who owned the car rammed by Dunstan, then intervenes and is seen repeatedly punching Dunstan in what he told the court was an act of self-defence and sticking up for his partner.
The Sunday World obtained the full video footage, taken by a neighbour across the road, which Mr Dunstan believes shows he was not the only person who should have been in court.
'Look, I know what I did was very wrong,' said Paul Dunstan on the steps of Downpatrick Court.
'I shouldn't have rammed the car like that but I was under major stress at the time because both my parents had been in and out of hospital and I needed the van for work and to go to hospital.
'When I discovered someone had slashed my tyres and scraped the van – causing thousands of pounds of damage – I lost it.
'But what happened afterwards was not all one-sided. I never wanted a fight. Tammy grabbed me out of the van and had me by the throat. I couldn't get free. I was swinging to get free. I know that part of the video didn't look good but there's context to it all. I'm not a violent person.'
He says he accepts he was guilty of careless driving but say he was beaten excessively before the police were even called.
'Watch the video – Stephen Elliott punches me repeatedly until I hit the pavement. I'm knocked unconscious and then both of the them continue to kick and punch me. I had no idea what was going on. I'm lying there for ages.
'Watch the video – Tammy comes back and can be seen taking photos of me lying there on her phone then she starts hitting me with her phone.'
Paul Dunstan
And the video shows two more males, who appear to arrive from the back garden Dunstan has just deposited Beattie's car, who remonstrate with a prone Dunstan.
One of these men is then seen delivering a sickening kick to the head of Mr Dunstan who is still lying on the ground.
'There was no need for that level of violence against me. The man who kicked me in the head – I have no idea who he was – wasn't even arrested even though I made a statement to the police,' says Paul Dunstan.
'I have a new legal team and I want the judge to see all of the video. I feel I was discriminated against by the PSNI and the PPS.
'When I was first arrested the police told me they had seen the video and they said it looked like I was the victim in this. I made statements but never heard anything back.
'All I'm saying is I shouldn't have been the only one standing in court. That's why I am going to try and get this overturned.'
Speaking to the Sunday World last month, Tammy Sparkes said: 'It was around 9.30pm when I heard all this revving and screeching and went out to see Paul Dunstan reversing his big van into Stephen's car over and over again.
'He just kept going, the car alarm was going off, and the car was getting forced backwards towards this metal fence.
'He was out of his mind. When I went out he got out of his van he just sat down on the pavement and then he got up and started punching me repeatedly in the head. It was really scary. 'I had a black eye and a concussion as well as cuts and bruises.'
Stephen Elliott told this paper he admitted he punched Dunstan when he came out and saw him attacking Tammy.
'I decked him, of course I did, what else could I do? But then some people came from over the fence from when he'd rammed my car into and they gave him a bad doing.'
The video footage shows only one other man attack Dunstan – the thug who kicked him in the head while he was already on the ground.
Dunstan had contested a charge of dangerous driving but his lawyer said the defendant was admitting careless driving.
He was convicted at an earlier court sitting of charges of dangerous diving, assault, and failing to provide a breath sample.
Judge Magill said at a previous hearing, 'It is obvious that he (Dunstan) launched a determined assault upon the woman. He struck her multiple times with both fists to her head and face'.
The judge said it was 'ludicrous' for the defendant to claim the driving had been careless driving as it was 'obviously dangerous driving' and convicted him of the charges.
A defence barrister said the defendant runs a car body repair shop and the loss of his licence would impact on the business. She said the defendant said his vehicle had been 'attacked' and he reacted. He had 'acted in self-defence'.
Judge Magill said it had been 'utterly appalling behaviour'.
He jailed Dunstan for seven months and banned him from driving for two years as well as issuing a two-year restraining order before releasing him on bail so he could appeal both conviction and sentence.
On Friday at Downpatrick County Court Paul Dunstan had his appeal adjourned until October 17th for contest.
Tammy Sparkes with her partner Stephen Elliott speaking to reporter Steven Moore
In March Tammy Sparkes was handed a three-month sentence, suspended for two years, as District Judge Peter Magill said her behaviour was 'utterly unacceptable' but spared her jail because of her child.
He gave her a year to compensate her latest victim, whose car cost £1,868 to fix, warning that if she did not make a significant hole in the debt, she would go to jail.
Last year, in an unrelated attack, she entered guilty pleas to six offences arising from a minor shunt including careless driving, causing actual bodily harm, causing criminal damage, using disorderly behaviour, assaulting a police officer and breaching a suspended jail sentence.
The driver of a Jaguar, which Sparkes had driven into, told police how she pulled up at the junction but was struck by Sparkes' Audi. When they got out to swap insurance details, Sparkes 'began assaulting her by grabbing her by the hair and pulling out clumps of hair'.
'Officers at the scene looked down and could see a large clump of hair lying on the ground,' the court heard, adding that at the time Sparkes was subject to a suspended sentence imposed in a different court but for a similar offence.
In July 2022 at Newtownards Magistrates Court, Sparkes was handed a four-month prison sentence suspended for three years along with a £400 compensation order after she entered guilty pleas to careless driving and causing actual bodily harm to a woman on May 6, 2021.
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