An Alness man who assaulted his girlfriend and her 79-year-old mother has been jailed at Tain Sheriff Court.
Ian Docherty initially assaulted his partner after an argument at her mother’s Alness home.
But when the pensioner tried to stop him he sent her “flying” across the room with a push.
Docherty, 44, appeared via videolink from custody at Tain Sheriff Court for sentencing having previously pled guilty to charges of assault and assault to injury against the mother and daughter respectively.
He had also admitted a charge of threatening or abusive behaviour, which was racially aggravated and aggravated by prejudice relating to sexual orientation, towards police officers who detained him following the incident.
At the previous hearing fiscal depute Naomi Duffy-Welsh explained that Docherty and his partner had been living at her 79-year-old mother’s address in Westford, Alness, on December 5 of last year.
She said it was around 2am when the elderly woman, who was in her bedroom watching television, heard the pair arguing in the room next door.
Man went ‘mental’ when told to ‘shut up’
Docherty’s partner later told him to “shut up” because they were in her mother’s house, at which point he had “gone mental” and grabbed the woman by her hair, hitting her head against the headboard of the bed, before grabbing her throat and squeezing it.
Ms Duffy-Welsh said “The mother has then overheard a loud bang and crash,” she added that this was followed by the sound of the daughter “screaming”.
The older woman went into the other room and saw her daughter on the bed with the accused leaning over her and punching her in the head.
“The mother then grabbed the accused by the t-shirt and made attempts to pull him away,” the fiscal depute explained.
Docherty fell backwards, pulling his partner onto the floor in the process.
Outburst of abuse
“The accused has then turned and has pushed the mother across the bed, and she has gone flying and ended on a pouffe by the bed,” Ms Duffy-Welsh told the court.
When his partner tried calling for help on her mobile phone, Docherty took it from her, he also snatched the landline from her when she tried to use that.
Docherty fled the scene before police arrived. The officers who responded noted that the woman had bruising to her hand and forearm and red marks on her face and neck.
When Docherty returned around 4am he was arrested and taken to Burnett Road Police Station, but made a number of threats and comments during the course of the journey.
He called the officers names including “p***s”, “p****s”, “bams”, “nonce” and “s*******s”.
Officers told: ‘Eat my s***’
He told them: “Eat my s****” and said: “Have you ever been battered before boys? You are getting battered”.
Solicitor Lindsey Barber for Docherty told the court her client had a “mental health background” which had yet to be fully investigated but said Docherty was “keen not to see the complainer” in the future.
Sheriff Neil Wilson told Docherty, of Firhill, Alness: “I’m not persuaded there is any alternative to a custodial sentence.”
He jailed him for nine months backdated to December 6 of last year.
The sheriff also imposed a non-harassment order preventing Docherty from contacting the woman or her mother for a year.
