Drug dealer headbutted girlfriend at Leeds-pub funeral wake
A drug dealer attacked his girlfriend after a family funeral following a squabble about a taxi payment.
Bradley Cunningham was jailed at Leeds Crown Court for the vicious assault and a raft of other offences including selling crack cocaine and brandishing a machete in public.
The court heard that the 28-year-old and had been in the relationship with the victim for six years. She later said it had started well but he became abusive and violent.
He was even of convicted in 2021 of making threats to kill towards her for which he was jailed.
Following the funeral on April 5 last year, they went to the Parnaby Tavern in Middleton and were both drinking. They then travelled into Leeds city centre for food, before returning by taxi.
Cunningham refused to pay and went into the pub toilets. The victim called him a “tramp” for not paying and he punched her repeatedly with the blows landing “all over her body”, prosecutor Anthony Moore said.
They were escorted from the premises by the landlord, but Cunningham continued to attack her, headbutting her to the face several times. Staff called the police but he made off over a fence before they arrived.
The woman suffered a black eye and bruises.
It was heard that Cunningham had also taken her car after an argument on a previous occasion. He admitted ABH and taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent.
However, he also admitted dangerous driving and driving while banned from an incident on August 2023, when police spotted him behind the wheel of a Vauxhall Astra they suspected to be on cloned plates.
They chased him around the Throstle Hill area of Middleton until he lost control and smashed into a parked car. This was after he mounted a pavement and nearly struck two pedestrians.
Cunningham, of Willowdale, Middleton, also admitted dealing in Class A drugs from November 17 last year, when he was stopped by police at Tong Garden Centre in Bradford and found to have £570 worth of crack cocaine on him.
Evidence from his phone suggested he was a step up from a street dealer, helping to “reload” with drugs.
Finally, he admitted affray and possession of a bladed article after he pulled out a machete in the back of a taxi when he spotted a motorbike rider and a pillion rider chasing him. The pillion rider was also brandishing a machete.
Cunningham then hung out of the window of the taxi waving the machete at the biker. He ordered the taxi driver to pull over in Asda in Middleton, which was shut at the time.
He then got out and walked towards the biker with the weapon still in his hand. The police were called and he was arrested.
He appeared in court this week over a video link from HMP Leeds where he was being held on remand.
Cunningham has nine previous convictions for 25 offences.
Mitigating for his latest offences, Giles Grant said Cunningham had worked for his father when he was younger, but the business went bust.
He said he was homeless for a spell when his serious offending began. He was also taking crack cocaine. He said had been clean now for more than six months.
He said: “He regrets his involvement in a lifestyle which has taken him to a serious level of offending.”
Judge Andrews Stubbs KC told Cunningham that he had “lost all direction” in his life.
He jailed him for five-and-a-half years and gave him a 10-year restraining order to keep him away from his ex partner.
He was also banned from driving for 45 months.