A mother has slammed the sentence of the drink driver who ploughed a JCB into her home during a £28,000 ‘revenge attack’ over a family feud.
Paula Brown, 50, was sitting with her 15-year-old son in November last year when she spotted the digger driving towards her house in Blackwood, Gwent.
She rushed outside to find her ex-partner’s brother Mark Holmes, 56, with ‘the most evil look on his face’ as he went on a rampage which would cost the victim around £28,000.
Ms Brown said she was left with heavy bruising to both her feet after Holmes lifted the arm of the vehicle before hitting her legs.
She has now revealed she was ‘disappointed’ with his sentence after a judge handed him a 16-month suspended sentence for two years.
Paula Brown, 50, was sitting at home with her 15-year-old son in November last year when she spotted a digger driving towards her home
Ms Brown rushed outside to find her ex-partner’s brother Mark Holmes, 56, with ‘the most evil look on his face’ as he went on a rampage which would cost the mother around £28,000
Ms Brown said: ‘I thought: What the hell is that noise? Is it a delivery truck?
‘My son was drifting in and out of sleep on the sofa. I looked through the window and was like: ”Oh my God, it’s a JCB coming towards my house’.’
The mother went to the front door to find the digger hitting her Ford Focus which she received as a gift from her children.
‘He looked at me and there was pure evil on his face. He lifted my car in the air, it must have been about 7ft, and dropped it inches away from me. I was in total shock, gobsmacked,’ she said.
Ms Brown desperately tried to stop the rampage by shouting at Holmes to say: ‘What are you doing, you stupid idiot?’
She said she watched as he then bashed the digger into the brick wall of the house, causing around £28,000 worth of damage.
‘I’m shouting and bawling, and he comes at me then. He was looking at me with the most evil look on his face and he headed straight for me,’ she said.
‘He smashed the bucket down on my left foot and almost ripped my boot off. He caught both of my feet but my left was worse.
Ms Brown said she was left with heavy bruising to both her feet after Holmes lifted the arm of the vehicle before hitting her legs
Ms Brown desperately tried to stop the rampage by shouting at Holmes to say: ‘What are you doing, you stupid idiot?’
Drunk driver Mark Holmes caused around £28,000 of damage to Ms Brown’s home
‘There was just enough room to move my foot. If I hadn’t, it would have gone over me and I think it would have ended up killing me.’
The mother, who had been living in the house for around 15 years, said the family are now desperate to return home following the damage.
Pobl, the housing association which owns the property, has warned it is structurally unsafe and has put the family in temporary accommodation for another six weeks.
Ms Brown added: ‘There are gaps in the bricks and under the door where rain could get in because of the damage. All we want to do is get in there and make it more like our home.
‘We have lovely neighbours who have been unbelievably supportive. My son loves it there but he’s also scared to go back. He’s got his GCSEs to do and the internet where we are is rubbish.’
The mother said she feared for her life as her former partner’s brother rammed a digger into her legs, her car and her house
An X-ray showed Ms Brown had no fractures but both of her feet were covered in ‘dark, nasty bruising’ and she is still struggling with pain.
Holmes was also handed a ten year restraining order at Newport Crown Court after carrying out the ‘revenge attack.’
The court heard the attack happened after a ‘culmination of family problems, misunderstandings and disagreements.’
Holmes, of Penybryn, drove to Blackwood Police Station after the rampage and confessed he had taken his son’s digger.
He pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle taking, damaging property, dangerous driving and drink-driving.
He denied assault occasioning actual bodily harm but admitted the lesser charge of battery.
Judge Duncan Bould said Holmes escaped custody ‘by a whisker’ while banning from driving for three years.
Holmes was ordered to wear an alcohol abstinence monitoring tag for 120 days and to do 200 hours of unpaid work.
Ms Brown said she was ‘disappointed’ with the sentence, adding: ‘Everyone is saying to me he got off way too lightly for how bad the crime was and how much worse things could have been.’
