A man had been jailed for attacks on his former partner after she texted a friend to call the police while he was distracted.
Kevin Dunbar – who was described in court as “a danger to women” – had assured her he would not harm her following a previous attack, but when she arrived to visit him he struck again.
Inverness Sheriff Court was told when he left the property briefly the woman sent a text to a friend, asking them to alert the authorities.
Dunbar, 36, appeared from custody to plead guilty to engaging in a course of behaviour which was abusive of his partner by assaulting her by striking her on the body, shouting and swearing and assaulting her by striking her with a pen to the back of the head and neck.
He also admitted a charge of resisting, obstructing or hindering officers following his arrest.
Fiscal depute Pauline Gair said the pair had been in an on/off relationship which the woman had ended in early 2021.
But when she was going through a tough time in her personal life at the end of October last year, she contacted her former partner, who offered comfort and invited her to visit him at his home on October 28.
“Upon arrival, the accused immediately began accusing her of sleeping with a male friend and subsequently struck her to the body,” Mrs Gair said.
The behaviour continued into the early hours, and the woman left the following day.
But just a few days later the accused asked her to return and with Dunbar “having sworn not to harm her” she agreed.
‘Aggressive and agitated’
When she arrived at his North Port home in Elgin, Dunbar paid for her taxi, but as soon as they entered the communal stairwell he “became aggressive and agitated” and once inside the property he hit her on the back of the head.
Dunbar shouted and swore at the woman, who the court heard was “crying throughout and told the accused she didn’t know what he wanted her to tell him”.
He then demanded to be given access to her Facebook account so that he could check her movements, before picking up a hollow pen and striking her to the back of her head and neck.
When Dunbar briefly left the property to meet people outside, the woman took the opportunity to text a friend and asked them to contact the police about her plight.
Woman had marks on back and wrists
Officers attended and Dunbar initially refused to answer the door. When they eventually gained entry he was arrested and the woman was seen to have red marks on her back and wrists.
While in custody Dunbar became uncooperative, at one point refusing to enter a cell and bracing himself on the door frame causing officers to have to push him in.
Defence advocate Bill Adam told the court that despite the woman having ended the relationship there were “still ongoing feelings between the two of them” at the time of the incident.
Sheriff Sara Matheson told Dunbar, a prisoner in Inverness: “This is serious domestic conduct against a background that suggests that you are a danger to women with whom you are in a relationship.”
She jailed him for 21 months, backdated to November 2 2021, and granted a three-year non-harassment order preventing him from approaching or contacting the woman.
