A serial domestic abuser assaulted four of his former partners and left a fifth “convinced that he would come back and kill her”, Inverness Sheriff Court has heard.
Daniel Sharratt-Dye choked women, threw items at them and headbutted one.
He also called his exes names and told one of them: “You don’t know what will happen to you if you try and leave.”
Sharratt-Dye, 33, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court to admit five charges of assault against former partners as well as engaging in courses of behaviour that were abusive of one woman and caused fear and alarm to another.
Fiscal depute Robert Weir told the court that the offences related to five women with whom Sharratt-Dye had been in relationships between 2008 and 2021.
Sheriff Ian Cruickshank heard how three of the women were choked by Sharratt-Dye, who placed his hands on their necks and applied pressure during altercations.
He also threw objects – including plates of food, a glass tumbler and an iPad – at some of his victims, leaving one with soft tissue damage that caused her to visit the hospital, claiming she had fallen down some stairs.
Women targeted on trips
In 2015 Sharratt-Dye and one of the women visited the Aberdeen Exhibition and Conference Centre for a performance.
When a text message arrived as they waited for the show to start, he stared at the woman before ripping a necklace he had previously gifted her from around her neck, causing her to run from the arena.
On a trip to Edinburgh in 2014 or 2015 with another woman, Sharratt-Dye “became aggressive” in a hotel room.
He seized the woman by the body and pushed her onto the bed, pinning her arms above her head and her legs with his knee before butting her to the head.
“The accused, then let her up and was apologetic,” Mr Weir told the court.
He called one woman names including “skinny s***” and “skinny freak” and “repeatedly threatened her with violence” telling her: “You don’t know what will happen to you if you try and leave.”
‘Just so scared of him’
“She was absolutely convinced that he would come back and kill her,” Mr Weir said, adding that she was: “Just so scared of him.”
One of the women was sponsored by Sharratt-Dye to move to the Highlands from overseas so that they could make a home together.
She instead found herself begrudged money for essentials while her partner was away working and called a “loser” and a “f***ing rat”.
On one occasion, Sharratt-Dye threw her out of their shared home and refused to let her back in.
On another, he attacked her after she received a phone call from a male friend that was believed to have been dialled in error and “repeatedly punched her to the head, face and body”.
The attack knocked her to the floor and was so severe that she dialled 999, but did not speak to an operator, who made repeated attempts to return the call.
Abuser’s previous conviction
The court heard that Sharatt-Dye, of New Row, Bradford, had already been convicted of a separate domestic assault on one of the women at Dingwall Sheriff Court in 2010.
Solicitor Willie Young, for Sharratt-Dye, reserved any comments in mitigation for the sentencing hearing, after Sheriff Cruickshank called for pre-sentencing reports.
The sheriff also continued consideration of a non-harassment order preventing Sharratt-Dye from contacting the most recent victim but told him there was “little doubt” that such an order would be imposed.
Sharratt-Dye’s bail was continued until the next hearing.
