An Aberdeen rugby coach has been jailed after he carried out a campaign of “cowardly and terrifying” physical and sexual abuse against a woman.
Jack Tait appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted on one occasion abusing the woman as she slept, while on another holding a saw to her throat.
The 25-year-old also repeatedly punched, kicked and grabbed the woman by the neck while uttering derogatory remarks.
Describing Tait as a “big guy”, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis went through each individual assault inflicted on the woman by Tait over 10 months before concluding “there’s just too much of it”.
The sheriff then placed Tait behind bars for 12 months and banned him from approaching the woman for six years.
‘If I was going to hurt you, I would’
Fiscal depute David Rogers told the court that Tait would often be verbally abusive to the woman, pin her against walls by her neck and “blame all issues on her”.
He would also lock the door with her keys and keep them, meaning she would have to ask him for them when leaving for work.
On one occasion, Tait and the woman were in the spare room when an argument started.
“The complainer was standing when the accused pushed her into a desk and held her there with his hand,” Mr Rogers said.
“He took a small wood saw on the desk, held it against her throat, and stated something like ‘if I was going to hurt you, I would’.
“This scared the complainer and when the accused released her, the complainer had two red indents on her neck.”
Touched woman’s private parts when she was asleep
During another incident that same month, Tait became agitated and pushed the woman onto the couch and struck her to the face.
A month later, the woman was asleep in bed when Tait came into bed and touched her on her private parts and continued to do it despite her telling him to stop.
He did eventually stop but repeated the act two more times during the same night.
On another occasion, the woman removed a screwdriver from Tait’s toolbox to fix a door, which sent him into a fury.
He grabbed a second screwdriver and placed the pointed end at her neck while warning her not to use his tools.
Two days later, Tait grabbed the woman around the throat and pushed her into a toilet cistern when she didn’t hand him a cigarette.
She took photos of the subsequent bruising to her back and neck.
Later that year, the woman was asleep in bed when she was awoken by Tait striking her to the head, chest and ribs area, causing her mouth to bleed.
He then pushed her into dog urine, which one of the dogs had left on the bed.
Tait then grabbed a golf club and pressed the head of the club into the woman’s body before he began filming her on his phone to send to his friend where he claimed she had “p***** the bed” and added that she was “dirty” and “a tink”.
She ran to the window to shout for help but Tait ran across and grabbed her before throwing her onto a sofa.
When he left the room, she found her work phone in a drawer and contacted police.
Mr Rogers said: “The phone was still on the line to the police, the accused returned and can be heard on the call recording with a raised voice, making comments such as ‘I hope you’re f****** happy with your stupid decisions, I suggest you don’t tell anybody what’s happened, you f****** say a word…’ and ‘cos you think that’s a way to react and that’s how I can react’.”
As a result of this incident, woman received a bruise to her left eyelid, she had cuts to the inside of her mouth which had been bleeding and bruising to her arms.
When police found her she was in an “extremely distressed state”, the fiscal depute added.
In the dock, Tait pleaded guilty to one charge of carrying out a course of behaviour that was abusive.
He also admitted a second charge involving the same offence where he injured the woman by grabbing her numerous times to the throat.
On one occasion he also threw dog food at her.
Victim subjected to ‘terrifying ordeal’
Tait’s solicitor David Sutherland told the court that his client was a rugby coach who “appears to have a personality disorder” and that “further assessment would help to clarify that”.
He stated that Tait had never been to prison before and had “suffered traumatic events in his life and during his childhood”.
It was a terrifying ordeal that he subjected this woman to,” Mr Sutherland added.
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis reiterated every incident of abuse to Tait before telling him: “This is repeated physical violence, sometimes with a weapon – there’s also a number of incidents of sexual abuse.
“You’re a big guy and you carried out these cowardly and terrifying assaults upon this woman.
“There’s no question in my mind this more than reaches the custodial threshold.”
The sheriff sentenced Tait, whose address was given as HMP Grampian, to 12 months in prison, backdated October 9 last year.
He also put a community payback order in place with supervision for three years and ordered Tait to take part in a domestic abuse programme.
Sheriff Foulis also ordered Tait to carry out 275 hours of unpaid work and put a six-hour non-harassment order in place.
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