Margate chef headbutted sister and left her permanently scarred in family argument
Published: 05:00, 25 October 2021
Updated: 12:21, 25 October 2021
A former chef who permanently scarred his sister with a headbutt during a drunken row has been jailed.
Keith Dunstane attacked Sareena Mcauley after a violent family argument flared in a home in Margate in 2019.
The 34-year-old was jailed at Canterbury Crown Court for 14 months for the brutal attack, which left his sister needing stitches.
“The victim was initially very upset and shaken, and in a statement said that she had to take time off work and didn’t want to leave her house because of the injury she sustained,” the prosecutor said.
Describing the attack, he went on: “She recalls he spat in her face and called on him to leave.
“As the defendant got in front of her he headbutted her to the nose causing a wound.”
He added Ms Mcauley was treated at the QEQM with adhesive bandages for heavy bleeding and Dunstane was arrested four days later.
He told officers his brother attacked him during a row moments before his sister intervened and admitted he could become aggressive after drinking alcohol.
Originally Dunstane, of Canterbury Road, faced the more serious charge of wounding with intent.
But he pleaded guilty before trial to the lesser charge of unlawful wounding, which carries a maximum five years custody.
Judge Simon James told Dunstane: “Intoxicated, and having lost your temper and all perspective, you headbutted your sister on the face requiring stitches and leaving a permanent scar.”
Oliver Kirk, mitigating, said Dunstane’s brother glassed him during a melee provoking his anger.
“He was not the genesis, he would say, of the violence and by the time his sister intervened he had lost his temper,” he said.
Mr Kirk added Dunstane had “succumbed to an alcohol problem”, which he was addressing, following a family tragedy.
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Sean Axtell