A serial domestic abuser, whose crimes included punching a partner in the face as she drove, has been jailed for 34 months.
Thomas Smith’s outbursts were so bad that a neighbour who overheard them told his victim to bang on the wall if she ever needed the police.
A sheriff told Smith he had “a propensity to attempt to coerce and control”.
Smith, 32, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing having previously admitted assault, assault to injury and engaging in a course of behaviour that was abusive to his partner.
He also pled guilty to destroying or damaging the property belonging to his ex, threatening or abusive behaviour and breaching a bail condition not to contact his former partner.
At a previous hearing fiscal depute Naomi Duffy-Welsh had told the court Smith’s string of domestic offences began in 2012, after he met a woman on a night out in Inverness.
Domestic abuser claimed he had been ‘badly treated’
She said: “Things were fine in the first few months. The accused made out that he had been badly treated by an ex-partner in the past.”
But later the pair began to argue. During one row in September 2012, Ms Duffy-Welsh said, he “punched her several times” and then “carried on like nothing had happened, leaving the woman with a swollen lip”.
The following month the pair were arguing in the woman’s car when he punched her in the arm and leg as she drove, leaving her shaken.
In March 2013, Smith stayed at his partner’s house and woke “in a bad mood, for no apparent reason”.
When the woman suggested he get some more sleep he punched her three or four times on the arm, leaving her “bruised and swollen”.
A few days later the pair argued in the woman’s kitchen and he grabbed her shoulder and neck before punching her on the face, leaving a small bruise and causing her to bite her tongue.
She tried to leave but Smith pushed her, causing her to fall to the floor, before kicking her in the leg, causing a bruise.
In 2014 the woman was driving on the B861 between Farr and Inverness with Smith in the passenger seat when another argument broke out.
“The accused punched her twice on the nose and three times on the left ear,” the fiscal depute told the court.
Woman was ‘screaming’ in ‘shock and pain’
The woman pulled over safely but was left “screaming” by the “shock and pain” of the incident.
The injury to her nose was such that she later attended a doctor’s surgery, although she did not disclose how the injury had been caused.
On one occasion Smith attacked his partner during a visit to his mother’s house.
“The accused grabbed her by her jumper and pushed her out of the side door of the house causing her face to hit off the rough casing of the house wall,” Ms Duffy-Welsh told the court.
The woman was left with a bruised and bleeding lip that required treatment at Raigmore Hospital.
There were further incidents of physical aggression in February and March of 2019.
Witnesses said the woman was left “visibly distressed” by Smith’s behaviour towards her and more than one neighbour developed concerns about the woman after overhearing shouting from her home.
When the woman tried to end the relationship in 2020, Smith reacted by ripping out fence panels and slamming and punching doors.
In 2021 he was with a new partner and an argument broke out after he cooked dinner for her and she told him she did not want it.
The argument spilt into a nearby car park, where Smith grabbed the woman and began shaking her before taking her mobile phone and throwing it to the ground.
Police encountered ‘sobbing’ victim
When police arrived at the scene the woman was “sobbing”.
In April 2022 Smith was involved in a “brief” relationship with another woman and the pair fell out after leaving a party.
As a result, the woman went into her sister’s home and locked the door behind her, after which Smith was heard “banging and shouting aggressively” for around 30 minutes before a neighbour contacted police.
Smith also breached a bail condition requiring him not to contact the first woman by calling her from an anonymous number three times.
At the sentencing hearing, solicitor Graham Mann, for Smith, pointed out that his client had been a young man at the beginning of the offending.
‘A propensity to attempt to coerce and control’
He explained that Smith had had difficulty with “emotional regulation” and had suffered from poor mental health
He said: “He has become better at dealing with his feelings.”
He added: “He has pled guilty to what he is responsible for and accepts that and is well aware that that would have had an impact on the various complainers.”
But Sheriff Ian Cruickshank said: “You pled guilty to a string offences, which are considered an abusive course of conduct against three former partners over nine years.
”This shows a propensity to attempt to coerce and control in even the briefest relationship – your culpability is extensive – it caused real and lasting harm.”
He jailed Smith, of Lochalsh Road, Inverness, for a total of 34 months and imposed non-harassment orders preventing him from contacting two of the women for three years and one for six years.
