A man has been fined and barred from contacting his wife after assaulting her in locations including Crimond and Inverness.
Ryan Ciesielski, 43, was found guilty of three charges of attacking his partner over the course of a 12-year period following a trial at Peterhead Sheriff Court.
Giving evidence against him, Victoria Ciesielski described a number of domestic abuse incidents, the first of which happened following a wedding in Inverness in November 2012.
“Ryan hit me,” she said. “I playfully bit him on the shoulder – he slapped me across the face and knocked me to the floor.
“I was just absolutely shocked. I just burst into tears, stayed on the floor. He got into bed and went to sleep.”
She said she suffered bruising and was unable to fully open her mouth for “maybe four days”.
‘I didn’t want my children to find out’
Asked why she did not seek medical attention or report it at the time, she said she had been manipulated and that he told her if he wanted to hurt her he would have used a fist.
“I should have got medical attention,” she told fiscal depute Claire Stewart during the hearing.
“I didn’t want my children to find out.”
The second attack, Mrs Ciesielski said, happened at her home in Kinross on a date between December 2017 and February 2018 as she attempted to shut herself in a bedroom following an argument.
“He pushed the door so hard against me that I flew back and instantly hit my head off the wood floor,” she said.
“I remember putting my hand on the back of my head and there was blood on my hand. He was apologetic that time.”
She further described the wound as swelling to the size of “half a grapefruit” and being concussed.
The following day, she attended Fife Royal Infirmary, where she was kept under observation for several hours.
“I honestly don’t remember what they (medical staff) did,” she added.
“I told them it was him that done it and they asked me if I felt safe having him with me.”
Final assault
Ciesielski’s partner was then asked about the final attack at their home in Crimond in August last year.
Ciesielski, her daughter and her daughter’s friend were described as being the property’s games room before two family dogs got into a fight forcing their separation.
“I told him (Ciesielski) to stay there with the dog,” she said.
“He was very angry and clearly wanting to pass me even though I was standing in the doorway.
“He said ‘get out the f****** way then’, then pushed me out of the way. He walked through me like I wasn’t there.”
She spoke to police in November when the pair finally split and divorce proceedings began.
‘I have never forgotten’
Under cross-examination by Ciesielski’s defence agent, Stuart Flowerdew, she maintained her version of events, but did concede her husband had approached her about splitting in July 2024 before matters were brought to the attention of police. She said she had sought legal advice to “see where I stand” prior to divorce proceedings beginning.
“My solicitor wasn’t involved in the decision at all,” she said.
“It wasn’t a plan.”
Asked if the length of time between the incident in Inverness and her reporting it made things less clear, she said: “I have never forgotten what he did to me.”
Mr Flowerdew proposed his client was not denying any of the incidents had happened, but instead, the issue was about “context”.
He said his client had an “instinctive reaction” to being bit on the lip, rather than the shoulder, which she also disputed.
In a special defence of self-defence in relation to the attack in Kinross, Mr Flowerdew said the combination of alcohol and pain medication, which Ciesielski’s wife was taking to deal with pain following an accident, had played a role and she had attacked him. She also denied this.
“I was taking what I was prescribed. I was never given advice on alcohol, but I was very careful,” she said.
“I wouldn’t abuse and I know how dangerous they are.”
And at their home in Crimond, Mr Flowerdew again put forward an alternative explanation, which was disputed.
He put it to her that Ciesielski had been on his way out of the room and intending to close the door when she arrived on a scene and that their coming together was an “accidental collision”.
“He wasn’t closing the door,” she responded.
“He was standing there telling me to get the f*** out of the way. I wasn’t sure what he was doing.”
Marriage breakdown
Ciesielski himself did not give evidence during the trial.
In closing the Crown’s case, Ms Stewart asked Sheriff Craig Findlater to find both witnesses credible in making his determination.
“Her position did not change throughout her evidence,” she said.
“The Crown would submit this matter comes down to credibility and reliability.”
Mr Flowerdew, meanwhile, urged concern for the reliability of his client’s soon-to-be ex-wife due to the “breakdown” of the relationship.
‘A deliberate act’
Following a break in the hearing, Sheriff Craig Findlater returned guilty verdicts of all three charges.
“I find the complainer to broadly be credible and reliable,” he said.
In the first charge, he said Ciesielski accepted he hit his wife.
In the second, he rejected there was a credible self-defence in his actions.
In the third, he highlighted witness testimony as evidence the coming together of the husband and wife was not an “accidental collision”.
He added the charges will bring a change to Ciesielski’s life going forward.
“For a professional person such as yourself, it is a very big change of circumstance,” he said.
Described as being in “reasonable employment” but living out of a suitcase until just days ago, Ciesielski, of Salton Square in Fraserburgh, was fined a total of £600 for the attacks. He will also pay a £10 victim surcharge.
A non-harassment order preventing him contacting his wife was also imposed. The pair will now only be allowed to communicate through solicitors.