Dundee grandmother jailed for driving from accident site with man clinging to car bonnet

A Dundee grandmother has been jailed for 14 months after driving with a man clinging to her bonnet for more than a quarter of a mile.

Mark McIntyre tried to stop Karen Hayter fleeing an accident scene and told a jury he thought he was going to die as she continued to speed up while he hung on for his life.

Mr McIntyre was left with multiple injuries after eventually being thrown from the car onto the middle of the road by the 50-year-old mother-of-four.

The jury at Dundee Sheriff Court heard how Mr McIntyre tried to stop Hayter from driving away after she clipped a parked car in the city’s Fairhurst Walk.

However, she drove her Fiat Panda straight at him and carried him more than 500 yards around Mid-Craigie Park to Valgreen Court.

Hayter abandoned her victim in the road, before dumping her car at a nearby Asda and taking a taxi home.

Sheriff Paul Brown also banned Hayter from driving for five years and seven months and said: “These are extremely serious offences and in my view there is no alternative to a custodial sentence.”

Hayter claimed during the trial she was “terrified” of Mr McIntyre, who she did not know, and believed he might attack her.

Mr McIntyre broke down in tears in the public gallery after the jury returned a guilty verdict.

He had told jurors he was having a cigarette outside his partner’s home at 11pm when he saw Hayter’s car clip a vehicle, before turning at the top of the street.

He stopped her in case she drove off without reporting the bump and jumped on the bonnet when he feared he would be dragged “under” the car as Hayter tried to leave.

“I shouted ‘stop the f***ing car’ but she just looked at me like I wasn’t even on that car.

“She just wanted me off. It was just an evil look she had. She was just getting quicker and quicker.”

Hayter drove from Fairhurst Walk onto Drumlanrig Drive with Mr McIntyre hanging onto her bonnet.

He was hurled from the car on Valgreen Court.

Asked by fiscal depute Lee Corr what was going through his head, Mr McIntyre replied: “That I could die.”

He suffered injuries including cuts to his scalp, large abrasions across his torso and a slipped disc.

Defence counsel Paul Keenan suggested Mr McIntyre was the aggressor.

The court heard how he repeatedly punched the windscreen of the car as it was being driven so “she would come to her senses and stop the car.”

Hayter told the trial she was terrified and did not leave her house for days after the incident due to crippling anxiety.

She said: “I clipped a car, I turned round to come and stop to see about it but I had no choice because he jumped on my car and punched the windscreen.

“What else could a woman do? I was asking him to get off the car.

“I just thought he was going to grab me. I just wanted to get home and lock my door.”

Hayter, of Balunie Street, Dundee, was found guilty of causing serious injury by dangerous driving on September 25 2022.

The jury found her guilty of causing Mr McIntyre severe injury, permanent disfigurement and permanent impairment, as well as endangering his life.

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