Man jailed for punching driver and smashing her partner's car gets apology from cops

Sunday World

25-06-2025

Paul Dunstan told us how he knew he had not acted properly but strongly believed he should not have been the only person before Ards Magistrates Court.
Ulster's angriest driver Tammy Sparkes was battered by Ulster's craziest driver who freakishly happened to be her next door neighbour! Paul Lawrence Dunstan was jailed last week for seven months – but released to appeal – for ramming Stephen Eillotts car through a fence and repeatedly punching Tommy Sparkes in the face in April last year Lawrence 43-year-old, who ironically runs a car body repair business, was plastered when he got into his van and started 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 Tammy Sparkes with her partner Stephen Elliott speaking to reporter Steven Moore
A man jailed for repeatedly punching 'Ulster's angriest driver' and ramming her partner's car through a fence got an apology from the police this week.
As revealed by the Sunday World last week, Bangor man Paul Dunstan is only out on bail as he appeals his conviction and seven-month jail sentence for his part in the shocking incident in April last year.
The 43-year-old of Drumglass Avenue went berserk after someone slashed the tyres of his van and scraped the side of the £40,000 vehicle.
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.
Dunstan is seen in an altercation seconds later with neighbour 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, who has a string of road rage incidents against her name – some of which saw her physically attack other drivers and even a cop.
Tammy Sparkes
Last week as he launched his appeal at Downpatrick County Court, Paul Dunstan told us how he knew he had not acted properly but strongly believed he should not have been the only person before Ards Magistrates Court.
Video footage of the whole 14-minute incident also showed Dunstan crumpling to the ground after he is repeatedly punched by Sparkes' partner Elliott, who told the court he was acting in self-defence and to protect his partner.
Dunstan says it also shows him being attacked by both Elliott and Sparkes long after he had been knocked unconscious and was no longer any kind of threat.
But he says what was even more shocking in the video footage is how several minutes after he has been knocked to the pavement – where he lies for several minutes – an unidentified man appears from a garden and kicks him full on in the head.
The Sunday World asked the PSNI what investigation they carried out into that incident and whether they ever arrested anyone for the cowardly kick to Paul's head.
They told us: 'As court proceedings are ongoing, it would be inappropriate for us to comment at this time.'
But Paul says a senior police officer also contacted him to apologise for not following up on his complaint about that incident.
Paul Dunstan started repeatedly rammed Stephen Elliott's Peugeot 208 car.
'I got a call from a police officer on Wednesday night apologising to me and saying there had been a breakdown in communication,' said Dunstan yesterday.
'I found it hard to believe that it was a breakdown in communication because I was contacting them regularly to ask what was happening with my complaint about that night.
'I was assaulted repeatedly while I was unconscious but the police chose to focus on what I did wrong that night and only showed the judge a section of the video that showed me doing wrong.
'I was interviewed by police last June – two months afterwards – and after they watched the video they told me I was a victim of a serious assault but I heard nothing back.
'Instead I was charged and convicted of assault. After I was convicted in April I went straight to police station to ask about my assault claim but there was nobody available.
'A sergeant arrived later that night at my house with two other officers with three bodycams and viewed the footage with me and said they'd email the investigating officers sergeant.
Paul Dunstan.
News in 90 Seconds - June 24th
'I was contacted the next morning and sent a link to forward them the evidence once again – and I never heard a thing back until the other night.
'Sorry doesn't cut it – I'll be taking this to the Police Ombudsman now.'
Paul has vowed to clear his name and said he had been discriminated against by the PSNI.
'I don't have a great relationship with the PSNI over the years but the video footage doesn't lie and the police have made a judgment because of that that they would rather just go for the easy prosecution of me than to look at the whole incident.
'They only showed the judge a blurry and shortened version of the video footage. With a new legal team I'm hoping I can get a judge to see the whole video footage.'
Tammy 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 Dunstan.
Those hat-trick of 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.
But last month she gave evidence as the victim of an attack by Paul who she lived next door to for three years in Loverock Close in Bangor.
'Look, I know what I did was very wrong,' said Dunstan on the steps of court last week.
'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.