Royton man jailed for mowing down couple outside restaurant

A woman said she feared she would die when a man deliberately drove at her and her husband.

Claire and Connor Winters were walking home from a meal when Mr Winters saw Joshua Bunn trying to get into a car outside an Oldham restaurant.

The 19-year-old drove at the couple after Mr Winters told him he looked too drunk to drive on 18 September 2020.

Bunn, now 22, was jailed for four years and seven months after admitting attempted grievous bodily harm.

Mrs Winters said they could now start to try and move on from the incident

Speaking to BBC Radio Manchester after Bunn was sentenced at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court, Mrs Winters, 38, said: "My husband approached him to tell him not to drive.

"As my husband was walking away from the car, the male drove at him, knocking him to the ground.

"When I approached my husband to help him up, the car then reversed and hit myself, pushing me to the ground.

"As I had my hands up to defend myself he hit me with the car again. This knocked me through a gap in the wall.

"I think if that wasn't there then I probably would have been dead.

"I just remember thinking, 'This is it, I'm going to die'.

"In that moment all I could think of was my little girl and that she was going to wake up in the morning without a mum."

The incident unfolded on Radcliffe Street in Royton

The court heard Bunn was arrested days later, and denied being drunk, claiming Mr Winters had assaulted him.

He also told police he had blacked out and could not remember anything else.

It was three years before Bunn admitted that he had lied to officers.

Recorder Nicholas Moxam told Bunn it was a "miracle" the incident had "not caused more serious injury" to the couple.

"Death would have been foreseeable without the gap in the wall," he said.

Bunn, of Windmill Close, who will be banned from driving for two years on his release, also admitted dangerous driving and causing actual bodily harm.