An Aberdeen businessman who became “obsessed” with his estranged wife following their break-up has been ordered to stay away from her for two years.
Steven Kurek, 39, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted carrying out physical and mental abuse against his wife for more than a year after she’d ended the couple’s relationship.
The court heard Kurek would trawl through her bank account transactions and photos on her mobile phone to find out what she was up to – even turning up at a hotel where she was spending the night.
It was also stated that Kurek walked into the woman’s bedroom while she slept and struck her across the face.
He later threatened the woman’s new boyfriend.
Called her friends for info
Fiscal depute Dylan Middleton told the court that Kurek and his wife had been married but had split up in 2019.
They had initially lived separately, but when Kurek lost his job in May 2020 he moved back into the family home for financial reasons.
He agreed to sleep in the spare bedroom, with his wife making it clear that she did not wish to rekindle the relationship.
It is understood that during this period Kurek believed the marriage could be saved.
However, Kurek would also often call his wife while shouting, swearing and calling her derogatory names.
“Starting in the summer of 2020 the accused would repeatedly call and text his wife on a daily basis, questioning her about clients and who she was seeing,” Mr Middleton said.
“He would question her about text messages she had received from other people, would go through her handbags, would check her bank accounts and other personal information to find information to use to question her about where she had been and what she had been doing.
“While she was present the accused would bring out his laptop and scroll through photographs that had been taken from her phone, but that she had not sent to the accused.”
Kurek – who runs a number of companies in Aberdeen – also repeatedly contacted the woman’s friends where he would quiz them about what his wife was doing.
Cancelled wife’s car insurance
On one occasion, Kurek’s wife booked into a hotel to get a break from him.
But she soon received a call from reception to say that Kurek was at the front desk asking for her hotel room number.
They asked her to come down and persuade him to leave because he was refusing to do so.
Kurek had managed to find out where she was by looking through her bank account information.
At another point during the summer of 2020, Kurek returned from a night out and walked into his wife’s bedroom as she slept and slapped her in a manner that was described as “hard and painful”.
On another occasion, Kurek was in the living room where he was repeatedly asking her to give their relationship another chance.
When she ignored him, Kurek frightened her by grabbing her by the face and swearing at her.
In August 2021, he cancelled his wife’s car insurance policy and mobile phone contract without telling her.
He told her it was “to make her realise that she needed him because he paid for everything”.
Kurek was upset when his wife responded, saying she could pay for everything herself.
The following month, Kurek flew into a rage when he discovered that his wife had begun a relationship with another man.
He seized his wife’s mobile phone from her and called the man, telling him he would “finish him off”.
In the dock, Kurek pleaded guilty to engaging in a course of conduct that was abusive to his wife.
Defence solicitor Stuart Murray told the court that “on the face of it” his client had carried out “fairly serious offending behaviour”.
He added: “The reality is that Mr Kurek became slightly obsessed with the comings and goings of his wife for some time and her seeing other people.
“He has now moved on and is in a new relationship since these offences.”
Sheriff Gareth Jones told Kurek that his offences against his wife had taken place over a “protracted period of time,” adding: “You will appreciate that there has to be a punitive element to mark your offending.”
He made Kurek, of Charleston Gardens, Cove, subject to a community payback order with supervision and ordered him to carry out 180 hours of unpaid work.
The sheriff also put a non-harassment order in place, meaning Kurek cannot approach his wife for two years.
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