A jealous partner threatened his child’s babysitters with body bags and warned he’d put an axe in his ex’s new boyfriend’s head.
Christopher O’Sullivan made the threats and hundreds of calls and messages to his partner while the pair were on a “relationship break”.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told the construction firm worker’s abusive behaviour began with repeated texts and more than 40 calls to the woman, despite her asking him to leave her alone.
On another occasion the 33-year-old called his child’s teenage babysitters 60 times in the space of three hours and demanded to speak to his ex, warning they’d be “in body bags” unless they left the house.
Hurled abuse at youngsters
Fiscal depute Andrew McMann said: “The witnesses informed him he could not talk to the complainer and terminated the call.
“However, he called back several times and during some of the calls stated something similar to ‘he would put an axe through his head’ while referring to the woman’s new partner.
“He then made threats to the two babysitters stating that they would be in body bags unless they left the house.
“He then said that if the complainer didn’t speak to him on the phone ‘somebody’s head would be smashed in all over the nice wooden floor, and it wouldn’t be his’.
“This left the pair scared so they contacted the complainer and she returned home.”
She later told police she’d had in excess of 100 texts and missed calls between 7.30am and 1.30pm that day.
Threats to smash into house
One of the messages to the woman was a video in which he threatened he’d see his two-year-old son “by any means possible, including smashing through the windows”.
Another message contained an indecent image of a woman accompanied by the words “waiting for me when I get home”.
O’Sullivan admitted one charge of domestic abuse and two more of sending threatening and abusive calls and messages.
His defence agent Iain MacGregor said the pair had been in a relationship for seven years and have since agreed to rekindle the romance.
‘They were empty threats’
He said his client’s “emotions were running high” with regards to seeing his son at the time but that in no way excused his behaviour.
“He is remorseful,” the solicitor said. “He certainly regrets the way he dealt with the matter and the effect his conduct had on all of the complainers.
“And as far as the threats were concerned they were empty threats. There was never any intention on his part of following through with any of those.”
He added that O’Sullivan’s victim is keen to rekindle the relationship and “welcome him back to the family unit”.
Sheriff Eric Brown said the behaviour he’d heard was “totally unacceptable” and he hoped there’d be no repetition of it.
He fined O’Sullivan, of Fraser Court, Rothienorman, £420.
That was reduced from £600 to take into account the fact O’Sullivan had been paying to stay in a hotel due to bail conditions to keep away from his family.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story incorrectly said O’Sullivan pleaded guilty to domestic assault. He pleaded guilty to domestic abuse. We apologise for any confusion.
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