A drunken racist who has been described as “the poster child for extreme alcohol misuse” abducted his neighbour in an incident that was livestreamed on Facebook by a “baying mob”.
Shaun Dunbar locked the terrified woman inside his flat in Aberdeen’s Byron Square for more than 30 minutes after she came to collect a drum kit, which she’d previously bought from him.
The woman’s screams for help caught the attention of nearby residents and a crowd began to gather outside the property, with some filming the events and broadcasting them live on social media.
When police arrived, the woman was released, but Dunbar, 53, refused to engage with officers, leading them to force entry with riot shields.
Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton told Aberdeen Sheriff Court that at 5.15pm on August 10 2021, Dunbar, 53, began banging on his neighbour’s door and shouting for her to collect a drum kit she had earlier agreed to buy from him.
The neighbour and her friend began to move parts of the kit between the flats, but Dunbar began asking his neighbour about her boyfriend and “questioning why she was staying with him”.
She tried to ignore him and continue packing the drum kit, but when her friend tried to re-enter she found Dunbar’s door locked.
Dunbar’s neighbour “became fearful and started screaming for someone to phone the police”.
Officers used public order shields for protection
Mr Middleton said: “The complainer tried to take the key from the accused and tried to go back to the door however the accused pulled her back by the waistband of her jeans
and kicked her on the right leg.
“The accused said that he wasn’t letting her out as she would just go back to her partner.”
The woman’s friend and another neighbour began kicking the other side of the door but Dunbar “refused to open it”.
The trapped woman was heard shouting “he’s holding me against my will” and “help he’s got me against my will”.
Police were contacted and, on hearing the sirens, Dunbar said he “would let her go if she didn’t press charges”.
He opened the door and she left to speak to the police officers. She estimated she was in the flat for 30-40 minutes.
However, the incident was far from over, as Dunbar was seen at his window “shouting and swearing in an agitated and volatile state”.
Dunbar also threatened to “shoot any police officer in the head”.
Accused told little girls to ‘go back to their own country’
Police were forced to retreat until officers trained in negotiation arrived and made several attempts to engage with him.
Mr Middleton went on: “Entry was eventually forced to the locus and the accused was traced within.
“Police officers continued to try face-to-face negotiations, using public order shields for protection, to bring the incident to a conclusion.
“While attempting to negotiate with the accused he continued to shout and swear at the officers before picking up a guitar and throwing it towards the shields.”
He eventually surrendered and was removed from the address and arrested.
In a separate incident on August 14, Dunbar attempted to headbutt a police officer at Royal Cornhill Hospital.
In another incident, while on remand at HMP Grampian on August 22, Dunbar spat at two prison officers, hitting one’s arm.
Dunbar ‘threatened to kick dogs’
And on September 1, around 12.45pm, Dunbar began “shouting aggressively towards a saxophone player” outside the Bon Accord Centre on Schoolhill.
He then spat towards him before walking to Broad Street and shouting at a couple inside All Bar One.
Moving on towards Queen Street, Dunbar approached a black female and said: “How come you people can call yourself n****** but the white man can’t?”
On September 9 just after 11pm, Dunbar’s racist abuse continued on a bus on Lewis Road, when he called a passenger the n-word several times.
He was challenged by others and told to leave the bus, but continued to verbally abuse the man through the window, shouting “various incoherent profanities”.
‘Jekyll and Hyde’
At 12.30pm on November 14, Dunbar was outside Mojo Cafe on George Street when he started shouting, swearing and gesticulating at a black family, including two little girls.
Dunbar called them the n-word repeatedly and told them to “go back to their own country”.
They ignored him and walked away.
A woman walking past with her dogs was also branded an “inbred f***” by Dunbar, who threatened to kick her dogs.
Around 15 minutes later, a woman was forced to intervene when Dunbar began quickly walking towards her 11-year-old grandniece “posturing aggressively” as she walked out of a shop in the Bon Accord Centre.
The girl turned and fled back into the shop in tears.
As a security escorted him from the shopping centre, Dunbar told a shop worker she could “f*** off as well” and spat on her.
He was arrested on Union Street and taken back to Kittybrewster station where his abusive antics continued, making vile sexual, homophobic and racial comments towards officers.
‘If they could have had torches and pitchforks they would have’
Dunbar pled guilty to abduction, four charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, one of assaulting a police officer, three of assault, one of acting in a racially aggravated manner and one of making sexually offensive remarks.
Defence agent Iain Hingston said: “If there was ever any doubt about the dangers of extreme alcohol misuse, Mr Dunbar is really the poster child for that.”
He described his client as a “Jekyll and Hyde” character in terms of how different he is when drunk and when sober.
The lawyer said a “perfect storm” of alcohol misuse and mental health issues had caused Dunbar to “simply lose control”.
Regarding the abduction incident, Mr Hingston said when the woman eventually left, she took the remainder of the drum kit with her.
He described Dunbar as “lonely and isolated” and “vulnerable”.
“He was being livestreamed on Facebook. There was a baying mob outside his house,” he said.
“If they could have had torches and pitchforks they would have.”
He added: “He isolates himself, he hides away and plays guitar and, when he’s not drinking, he doesn’t bother anyone.”
Sheriff Ian Wallace deferred sentence on Dunbar, of Byron Square, Aberdeen, until later this week for information to be confirmed in relation to a potential curfew order.
For all the latest court cases in Aberdeen as well as crime and breaking incidents, join our Facebook group.
