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A father and son from Folkestone have been sentenced to more than seven years of collective imprisonment at Canterbury Crown Court following a violent family confrontation in which a relative was stabbed in the chest and crushed against a wall by a motor vehicle. The court sentencing brings an end to a protracted Kent Police investigation into seventy-four-year-old Abdul Gunes and his forty-six-year-old son Necdet Gunes, who launched the joint attack near Cheriton High Street after a long-running domestic dispute connected to an acrimonious marriage dissolution escalated into catastrophic street violence.
The incident began on the morning of 4 April 2025, when Abdul Gunes travelled from his home on The Leas in Folkestone to confront an estranged male relative with whom the household had maintained a volatile personal conflict. His son, Necdet Gunes, well known locally as an operator of prominent restaurant and catering businesses in the district and residing at Windmill Close in Hawkinge, drove separately to the targeted residential address in a silver BMW saloon.
Both men converged outside the property and banged heavily on the entrance. When the victim opened the front door, he was met with immediate verbal insults and hostility. As the relative stepped across his threshold onto the public pavement, Abdul Gunes drew a concealed bladed weapon and struck him directly in the upper body, inflicting a severe puncture wound to his chest.
Following the stabbing, the father and son immediately retreated towards the waiting BMW. When the wounded victim pursued the pair into the street on foot, Necdet Gunes drove the vehicle directly over the kerb and onto the pedestrian footpath. The saloon struck the injured man with immense force, pinning him against an exterior brick wall before the driver reversed and fled the area at high speed.
The assailants abandoned the casualty lying heavily injured on the ground. A commercial delivery driver navigating Cheriton High Street witnessed the collision in real time, immediately alerting emergency services via 999 and relaying the exact registration index of the fleeing vehicle to police dispatchers.
Uniformed patrols from Kent Police launched an immediate search operation across coastal Shepway. Within sixty minutes of the incident, response officers intercepted the suspect vehicle along Marine Parade in nearby Hythe, where Necdet Gunes was detained behind the wheel. Regional detectives traced Abdul Gunes to his residential address on The Leas later that afternoon, placing him under arrest without further incident.
Paramedics transferred the casualty under emergency escort to a major trauma centre in London. Specialist clinical teams treated the man for the penetrating chest injury and severe blunt-force trauma to his upper torso. Daily Dazzling Dawn understands that while the victim required emergency intervention and extended clinical observation, medical staff successfully stabilised his injuries, allowing him to be discharged into outpatient recovery.
The Crown Prosecution Service charged both men with top-tier offences of violence. At a plea hearing before Canterbury Crown Court on 26 January 2026, Abdul Gunes formally entered a guilty plea to causing grievous bodily harm with intent under Section 18 of the Offences Against the Person Act 1861. At the same hearing, Necdet Gunes admitted attempted grievous bodily harm with intent in relation to the vehicular assault.
Returning to Canterbury Crown Court for final disposal on Friday 9 October, Abdul Gunes received an immediate custodial sentence of four years and four months. Necdet Gunes was sentenced to three years of immediate imprisonment. The presiding trial judge also issued ten-year restraining orders against both defendants, barring them from initiating contact with the victim or approaching designated private locations.
The origins of the violence stemmed from deep-seated hostility within extended family networks that originated in southeastern Turkey before settling in coastal Kent, ignited by bitter fallout from an acrimonious marriage breakdown involving a granddaughter. Senior investigating officer Detective Superintendent David Higham told journalists that the confrontation represented an appalling act of orchestrated violence that could easily have led to a fatality had emergency services not acted swiftly.
The conclusion of the proceedings delivers legal closure to a severe public disturbance in Folkestone, underscoring the absolute refusal of the British judicial system to tolerate retribution and vehicular violence under the guise of private family disputes.
