A man has appeared in court after threatening to slash his five-month-pregnant girlfriend when he caught her going through his phone.
Dean Smart flew into a rage, striking her in the face with a flailing arm before making chilling threats to cut her.
Fiscal depute Tom Procter told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the incident happened in the early hours of Monday morning while the pair were together at an address in Aberdeen.
An argument broke out and the woman stated she was phoning the police.
‘Found information she didn’t like’
Mr Procter said: “At this point, the accused went to grab the phone from the complainer, started flailing his arms, causing one of his arms to strike the complainer in the face.
“The 999 call connected despite all of this and the accused was heard to be shouting at the complainer.”
Smart, 33, told the woman: “I’ll slash your f****** face. I’ll break your f****** face.”
The threats were also overheard by neighbours.
Police attended, traced the pair at the address and arrested Smart.
Smart, of Shapinsay Road, Aberdeen, pled guilty to a domestically aggravated charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
Defence agent Tony Burgess said: “As is often the case in these situations, there is a background.”
The solicitor explained the couple’s relationship, which was on-off, was “problematic”.
She is also five months’ pregnant with Smart’s child, he said.
Although the pair lived separately, Smart would sometimes be asked to stay at the woman’s address.
‘He was trying to get his phone back from her’
Mr Burgess said that, on a previous occasion, she had searched through Smart’s phone and “found information she didn’t like”.
On the date of the offence, Smart again woke up to find his phone being searched and an argument ensued.
Mr Burgess said Smart had tried to leave the property but the woman had claimed she didn’t know where the keys were.
He added: “Had she perhaps let him leave, it wouldn’t have escalated to the extent it did.
“He was trying to get his phone back from her.”
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin fined Smart £350.
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