The boss of a high-end fashion shop has been jailed after he subjected his girlfriend to a series of violent assaults and emotional abuse.
Ryan Steehouder – who owned the Aberdeen clothes store 1 Off – physically and mentally abused the woman for more than a year and repeatedly breached court orders to stay away from her.
The 32-year-old admitted a catalogue of charges against his ex-girlfriend, including slamming her head against a car window and posting on social media that he was sitting outside her home with a knife.
Steehouder – who worked in the oil and gas sector for 10 years before opening the shop in the Galleria – also threatened to put the woman “through her living room window”.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court heard he also put up a number of chilling Instagram posts telling the woman and his friend they would “answer for what they have done”.
Fiscal depute Ruaridh McAlister told the court how the businessman was extremely jealous and controlling towards his former partner and would often drink to excess.
He said that on one occasion the woman had arrived at a house party to find Steehouder drinking and persuaded him to go home.
“While driving home the accused started to scream at her and accused her of flirting with other males at the house they had just left,” Mr McAlister said.
“As the accused was driving round a bend, he had one hand on the steering wheel and grabbed the complainer’s neck with the other hand and repeatedly slammed her head against the passenger window at full force.”
Steehouder then stopped the vehicle on Holburn Street, got out and punched the front windscreen, causing it to shatter.
The woman was left with bruising to the left side of her face and neck as a result of the attack.
Steehouder’s other offences against the woman included grabbing her, forcing her against a door and telling her “not to scream”.
He also repeatedly called, messaged and turned up at her work and home. On one occasion the woman found Steehouder in her back garden.
Steehouder pleaded guilty to 11 charges, including behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, driving while under the influence of alcohol and breaching a number of bail conditions not to approach his ex-girlfriend.
He also admitted two further charges of assault against two women, who were talking to his former partner in The Office nightclub in Aberdeen.
‘Psychological abuse and cocaine misuse’
Defence agent David Sutherland described his client’s offences as “absolutely disgraceful”.
He added: “He accepts that their relationship is toxic and he wants to move forward.
“He is working on his alcohol and drug misuse and made an admission that there was psychological abuse and cocaine misuse.”
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin told Steehouder: “Given that this took place over a long period of time and that it involved emotional abuse and physical violence I feel there is no other option in order to show the court’s displeasure of these offences than by imposing a prison sentence.”
Sheriff McLaughlin sentenced Steehouder, whose address was given as HMP Grampian, to 15 months in prison.
She also put a non-harassment order in place banning him from approaching his former partner for four years and disqualified him from driving for three years.
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