A Peterhead man has been jailed after police walked in as he was throttling his ex-girlfriend on the ground.
David Dickson, 32, admitted taking a “cocktail” of drink and drugs and lunging at the woman, shoving her onto the floor of a bedroom before climbing on top of her and placing his hands around her neck.
Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told the woman’s friends heard her desperate pleas for help and tried to barge into the room.
Police then arrived and witnessed Dickson knelt on top of the woman with his hands around her throat.
A sheriff jailed Dickson over the incident and ordered him to stay away from his victim for five years.
Fiscal depute Jennifer Pritchard told the court that at around noon on October 21 last year, the woman was socialising with friends at Dickson’s father’s home on Churchill Drive, Peterhead.
Dickson left the property but returned drunk hours later and began accusing the woman of being unfaithful while they were together.
As the woman walked into a bedroom to avoid a confrontation, Dickson attempted to follow but was stopped by one of her friends, who he bit on the arm.
Dickson then stormed into the bedroom and shoved the woman to the floor, pinned her with his legs and placed his hands around her throat as she shouted for help.
A friend of the victim attempted to come to her aid and did gain entry to the room, where she saw Dickson standing over the woman as she appeared to be “fitting” or having “some kind of seizure”.
“At this point, the complainer managed to briefly stand up before being pushed back onto the bed,” Ms Pritchard said.
“The accused then climbed on top of her before grabbing her neck with his hand and attempting to choke her, applying moderate pressure which caused her to struggle for breath.”
Meanwhile, two police officers arrived at the property and found Dickson still on top of the woman, choking her. He only stopped when they pulled him off her.
The woman, who police said was dazed and in a state of confusion, was left with bruising to her neck and under her right eye.
Dickson pleaded guilty to two charges of assault and one charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
‘Must have been a frightening experience for victim’
Defence agent Sam Milligan told the court that his client had two previous convictions for assault on his record but had nothing since this incident “related to violence”.
Mr Milligan added that Dickson had consumed “a fairly potent cocktail of alcohol and Xanax” which caused the situation to “escalate quite quickly”.
Sheriff Ian Wallace told Dickson: “Given the nature of your offending I’m satisfied that only a period of custody is appropriate.
“This is a particularly serious offence that involves the compression of someone’s neck and where you were stopped and started again.
“It must have been a frightening experience for the victim.”
Sheriff Wallace sentenced Dickson, whose address was given as HMP Grampian, to 16 months in prison backdated to October last year.
He was also made subject to a non-harassment order, meaning her cannot approach or contact his victim for five years.
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