Dad attacked 'attempting to save kids from party'
BBCTwo "drunken yobs" who hit a dad with a baseball bat and shovel as he tried to save his kids from a booze-fuelled party have been spared jail.
Wayne Bungay, 38, and Jack Doran, 36, attacked the man and his partner after they had gone to Doran's home to get the victim's children, who called him saying they wanted to leave the house full of drunken adults, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
The man said he feared he was going to be killed and had been left with long-lasting pain and a fractured nose.
Both admitted offences including assaulting the man and woman and were sentenced to two years in prison, which was suspended for two years.
Bungay was in a relationship with the victim's ex-wife and they had gone with the former couple's two children to a party at Doran's home on 9 December 2023, prosecutor Nicoleta Alistari said.
One messaged her father to say the adults were drunk and she wanted to go, so he and his partner drove to collect her and her brother, the court heard.
'Threatened to kill'
The man called police to say he was doing that as he knew Bungay, of Orpington Avenue in Newcastle, was a boxer and therefore there may be violence, the court heard.
When the man knocked on the door, a woman inside told him the children were there but they were not allowed to leave, the court heard.
The man called police again and was told officers would be there within an hour, but after two hours they had still not arrived and the man had had more messages from his children begging to collect them, the court heard.
Eventually, the children were allowed out and got in the man's car, but their mum then came out and started screaming at the man to give them back, the court heard.
Bungay and Doran, of Cestrium Court in Wallsend, North Tyneside, came out armed with a baseball bat and shovel respectively and started attacking the man, hitting him repeatedly with the weapons and punching him, Ms Alistari said.
Bungay was shouting he would kill the man during the attack before he punched the victim's partner in the face, the court heard.
The couple eventually managed to flee leaving the screaming children behind, but not before Bungay had hit the car's door with the baseball bat.
'Should be ashamed'
The court heard the man suffered multiple injuries to his head and face, including a broken nose which had made it difficult to breathe, while the woman had bruises and grazes.
In a statement read to the court, the man said he believed he was going to be killed and was left in "considerable pain".
Recorder David Gordon said the attack was "absolutely disgraceful" and "drunken yobbery" in front of children.
"You should both be thoroughly ashamed of yourselves," the judge said, adding it was an irony that Bungay worked as a health and safety consultant when he had shown total disregard for the victims' health and safety.
He said neither defendant "could have any complaint" if they were jailed but the reality was they would probably only serve 10 months before being released and the prisons were "extremely overcrowded".
Bungay must complete 240 hours' unpaid work and Doran 150 hours, and each were ordered to pay £900 towards prosecution costs.