A woman today said she’s still afraid to leave the house months after a terrifying assault where she was told to choose between having her fingers cut off – or hit with a hammer.
Charlene Whyte, known as Shelly, spoke out after her attackers were jailed.
Thomas Chesterton, 26, grinned and winked in the dock as Sheriff Andrew Miller jailed him for just under five years, 532 days of an unexpired sentence and 42 months for the attack.
He was previously found guilty by a jury of assault to severe injury over the “disturbing” attack in Shelly’s Peterhead home. It involved presenting a knife and hammer at his victim, forcing her to put her hands on a table, threatening her and repeatedly striking her hands with a hammer to her severe injury, as well as repeatedly seizing her by the hair and repeatedly punching her in the head.
Chesterton, of HMP Grampian, had also pled guilty to a charge of wilfully or recklessly damaging a door by repeatedly striking it.
Co-accused Charley Ironside, 25, pled guilty to a lesser charge of assault to injury, involving punching her in the head and seizing her by the hair. She was jailed for 10 months.
Shelly previously told how she was scared to leave the house, and speaking after the sentencing hearing she said: “I think they should have got longer sentences.
“Nothing has changed, I’m still staying in all the time. My cousin is with me and if I need to go out to the shops, she’ll go for me.
“When you think about it, they got just shy of five years and 10 months but they’ll both be out before that.
“They needed a lot longer, that’s all I’m saying, but at least they have been locked up for a while.”
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Sheriff Miller initially proposed to give Ironside, of Tullochgorum Gardens, Longside, two years of supervision and 160 hours of unpaid work, but when asked if she would comply with the order she shook her head.
Chesterton shouted that she would but Sheriff Miller instead jailed her for 10 months.
Solicitor Mike Monro, representing Chesterton, who had only been released from prison a fortnight before the attack, said there had been “mixed messages” between his client and the complainer about how their friendship was to develop.
He said: “There had been letters received by either side, the complainer and the panel.
“These letters were then presented to the panel when he was at the complainer’s property and it was in the presence of the co-accused.”
This caused Chesterton to become “very frustrated” and “matters then deteriorated”.
Sam Milligan, representing Ironside, said after his client pled guilty to a lesser charge, she gave evidence in Chesterton’s trial and claimed she carried out the full assault and not him.
Mr Milligan described it as an “ill-conceived, poorly executed and ultimately unsuccessful attempt to assist another”.
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