A violent serial domestic abuser attacked two former partners when they were pregnant and threatened to inject heroin into a third woman, a court has heard.
Harrowing details of Greg Stewart’s 11 years of abuse were read out in Inverness Sheriff Court and he was warned it was “highly likely” that he would be jailed.
The court was told the 31-year-old assaulted his partner just weeks before she gave birth.
Fiscal depute Pauline Gair said Stewart’s first victim moved in with him in Alness around January 2013 when she fell pregnant.
Mrs Gair said: “She describes the accused as controlling and angry all the time. On multiple occasions he would grab her by the wrists and squeeze them tight while screaming in her face.
“The behaviour caused her concern about her unborn child. He would call her useless and worthless and she felt very isolated during her pregnancy. The effects of this have been life-changing.”
Second victim’s ordeal
Mrs Gair described one occasion, in August or September 2013, where the woman sought refuge in a bathroom.
Stewart pushed the door so hard it hit her on the left side of her stomach and she was left with bruising.
The child was born in October 2013 and the relationship ended a month later.
The second victim moved in with him to properties in Inverness and Ardersier in their relationship which lasted from May 2016 to January 2021.
She described it as “physically and emotionally abusive throughout”.
Stewart would call her derogatory and offensive names and once threatened to blow up her house and make it look like a gas leak.
Stewart would also push her and punch her and, after she found out she was pregnant in May 2018, they argued. She also sought refuge in the bathroom but he pushed his way in.
Mrs Gair continued: “He then put his hands around her throat and said ‘You ain’t going to be no mother to my child.’ She was terrified and screaming at him to let her go.”
Heroin injection threat
The couple moved to another property in Inverness in January 2019, a month before their daughter was born.
In the garden, he grabbed her mobile phone as she was messaging a friend and smashed it on the ground, Mrs Gair added.
The relationship ended in January 2021.
The court heard that later that year in September, Stewart started a new relationship with a woman in Inverness.
He would leave her to pay all the bills, call her names and constantly ask her for money for drugs, Mrs Gair said.
The woman was forced to administer heroin into his arm but when she refused, he pinned her to the bed, took the syringe of heroin and said: ‘I’ll inject you with this and then you’ll see how it feels.’
Addicted to heroin for 16 years
“She managed to push him off with her feet. That relationship ended at the beginning of November 2022,” Mrs Gair added.
Stewart pleaded guilty by video link from HMP Perth to four charges – two of assault, one of threatening behaviour and one of a campaign of domestic abuse which included violence.
Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald agreed to defence solicitor Rory Gowans’ request for a
background report.
He explained his client had been addicted to heroin since he was 16 years old and had ADHD and autism.
Sheriff Macdonald deferred sentence until February 25 for the report to be prepared which, she said, should include a risk assessment on Stewart.
She commented: “His behaviour is stark. A custodial sentence is highly likely.”