A man attacked his partner as she slept, a court has heard, at the culmination of a three-day-long drug binge.
Drug-addled Glen Mitchell turned up at his partner’s address in Aberdeen in the middle of the afternoon and promptly fell asleep.
It was only hours later, in the early hours of the next morning when his partner had also fallen asleep, that Mitchell punched and choked her, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
And while the 45-year-old disputed that his partner was asleep at the time, he admitted carrying out the brutal and unprovoked attack, leaving the woman injured and “hysterical”.
Fiscal depute Lucy Simpson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the couple had been in an “on and off” relationship for around a year at the time of the incident on Friday April 29 2022.
Mitchell turned up at the woman’s address around 2pm before stating that he “felt tired” and going to bed.
His partner got on with her day and eventually fell asleep on the sofa around 11pm.
Victim was ‘hysterically upset’
Ms Simpson said: “Around 1.30am on Saturday, April 30 2022, she woke to the accused punching her to the face then grabbing her neck in a stranglehold with both hands.”
The woman managed to break free and call 999 before Mitchell grabbed the phone from her and threw it across the room.
Mitchell then left and was traced by officers in the communal landing with his right knuckle bleeding.
Inside the flat, officers found the woman “hysterically upset” with bruises and swelling to her face and a bleeding nose.
Mitchell, of High Street, Laurencekirk, pled guilty to a charge of assault to injury.
Defence agent Paul Barnett said his client had just one prior conviction and that domestic offending was “very much out of character”.
He went on: “He accepts this incident occurred against the background of him having been up for the preceding three days consuming drugs.
“He’d gone back to the complainer’s address and had fallen asleep in the afternoon.
‘He doesn’t remember much’
“His very limited recollection is that he woke up with the complainer shouting at him and woman “hysterically upset” after that.”
Mr Barnett continued: “He says it keeps him up at night, knowing he committed an offence of this nature.”
The solicitor said Mitchell was now engaging with support services in relation to his drug use.
Sheriff Ian Wallace ordered Mitchell to complete 225 hours of unpaid work and be supervised for 18 months.
A nine-month curfew was also imposed, all as a direct alternative to custody.
Mitchell was also ordered to stay away from his now ex-partner through the imposition of a five-year non-harassment order.
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