A violent thug has been jailed after he forced his thumb into a woman’s eye – leaving her bleeding and unable to see or defend herself.
Conor Bardrick had been visiting a friend in Aberdeen when the pair began to argue about dirty dishes, and he flew into a violent rage.
When a neighbour came to the woman’s aid, Bardrick turned his attention on her, forcing his thumb into her eye not once but twice, before throwing knives into the living room wall.
The 33-year-old went on to threaten to stab a man in a separate incident, before bragging about how much jail time he had done.
At a previous hearing, Bardrick, a prisoner of HMP Grampian, admitted two charges of assault to injury, and two of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
Accused began to twist his thumb into woman’s eye
Fiscal depute Carol Gammie told the court that an argument broke out on March 9 last year concerning dirty dishes, causing Bardrick to “shout and swear” loudly.
The dispute was so loud that a neighbour called the woman and ran over to help.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard that Bardrick then jumped upon the first woman and attempted to press his thumb into her eye before she pushed his hand away.
As the neighbour entered, Bardrick approached her and began to “twist” his thumb into her left eye for around eight seconds.
The pair were separated, however, Bardrick then pushed his thumb into the neighbour’s eye again “leaving her unable to defend herself as she could not see”, Ms Gammie said.
As the neighbour screamed the woman saw that her eye was bleeding.
The two women then barricaded themselves in a bedroom to get away from Bardrick, who went into the kitchen and retrieved two knives, which he then threw into the living room wall.
In a separate incident at 9pm on March 12, Bardrick attended an address on Pennan Road in Aberdeen and started banging on a door and loudly asked the occupant to sell him cannabis.
He then left and returned with a “large kitchen knife” and made threats to cut and stab the man, who remained inside his flat.
‘It’s easy to apologise now but he does apologise’
Defence agent Mike Monro told the court that Bardrick had gone from being locked up in HMP Grampian for a lengthy period of time to then being in the Covid-19 lockdown.
He said: “He comes out and immediately goes into having to remain within four walls.
“The group were meeting up to socialise and take drugs and, on the day in question, there was this ridiculous minor argument about dishes that led to a stupid row.
“The other woman then tried to calm things down but he did commit these two offences within that address.
“It’s easy to apologise now through a solicitor, but he does apologise.”
In relation to the second incident, Mr Morno said Bardrick was “out of his face” at the time, but added that he also wanted to apologise for his behaviour.
Sheriff Graham Buchanan described the offences committed by Bardrick as “frightening”.
He added: “Your record is a bad one and includes a number of previous convictions.
“I take the view that the only appropriate disposal is one involving a prison sentence.”
Sheriff Buchanan sentenced Bardrick to 18 months in prison and ordered him to return to prison to serve 246 days of a sentence for a previous conviction.
A non-harassment order was also put in place meaning Bardrick cannot go near the female neighbour he attacked for five years.
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