A “persistent” domestic abuser who subjected his partner to demeaning verbal abuse alongside physical violence has been told he has been “lucky” to avoid a prison sentence.
Shaun Cowie appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted engaging in a course of behaviour that was abusive to his partner over four months.
The 21-year-old called the woman a series of offensive and derogatory names and struck her to the body on one occasion.
And during a particularly heated fit of jealousy, Cowie grabbed the woman’s mobile phone from her and smashed it to pieces.
Shaun Cowie hurled verbal threats
Fiscal depute Victoria Kerr told the court that the couple had been dating for a few months before they “started arguing” in December last year.
Ms Kerr said that following these arguments, Cowie’s then-partner would block him on her phone and on social media, which on one occasion he responded to by banging on her door for an hour and a half.
After months of arguing, on March 3 2023 he messaged her numerous times using derogatory language.
As the woman pleaded with Cowie to stop, he sent her messages calling her a “f****** c***”, a “spastic c***” and a “spazzy c***”.
On March 19, the woman went to Cowie’s home where he immediately began to verbally berate her for “blocking him and for not wanting to see him”.
He told her to leave his property, but when she tried to leave he blocked her departure with his body for “some considerable time”.
When the woman tried to walk back inside to get her mobile phone, he verbally lambasted her once more.
Made threats to smash up flat
On April 2 this year, Cowie organised to come to the woman’s house to look for a ring he’d misplaced.
“He tried to hold her hand and she shrugged it off, which made him angry,” Ms Kerr told the court.
“The accused then got very angry when she couldn’t find the ring – he was getting more and more aggressive so the woman left her own home and went to sit in the car.”
The fiscal depute said Cowie then followed the woman to the car where he called her a “baby” and a “f****** child”.
He also told her that if she was unable to find the ring she would have to pay for it, adding that he was “going to smash her house up”.
They then went back into the property where he “continued to belittle” her before grabbing her mobile phone and looking through her messages.
Finding a message from a male he did not recognise, Cowie smashed it against a wall while “shouting and swearing” at the woman.
He called her a “slag” and, as she became hysterical, Cowie then shoved her onto a bed, where he climbed on top of her and struck her once to the body.
Cowie apologised afterwards, but was soon back to belittling the woman and making threats to “smash up her flat”.
Appearing in the dock, Cowie, of Blackthorn Crescent, Aberdeen, pleaded guilty to one charge of engaging in a course of abusive behaviour towards his ex-partner between December 1 2022 and April 18 this year.
Accused has previously taken part in domestic abuse programme
Defence solicitor Carolyn Leckie told the court that her client “appears to have matured” in the months since these offences.
But she was also forced to point out that Cowie had a previous domestic abuse conviction and had already been made subject to a domestic abuser rehabilitation programme.
Ms Leckie said that Cowie had been “receptive” to that programme but conceded that in itself “might not be enough to mark the seriousness of the offence”.
She added that Cowie had ceased all contact with his former partner and had begun a new relationship where he had “taken the insights gained” from the social work department’s programme for domestic abusers.
Sheriff Joseph Platt described the narration of Cowie’s offences relayed by the fiscal depute as “vivid”.
He told Cowie he had carried out a course of “persistent abusive conduct” upon his former partner.
“You have a record for abusive conduct and a prison sentence would often be imposed here,” the sheriff said.
He also described Cowie’s participation in the previous domestic abuse programme a “failure rather than a success”.
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Platt made Cowie subject to a community payback order with supervision for two years and ordered him to carry out 225 hours of unpaid work.
He also put a non-harassment order in place, meaning Cowie cannot approach his former partner for three years.
“Hopefully, you will have matured a little more in three years than you have now,” the sheriff added.
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