A man who attacked his partner on an Inverness street while on a Highland holiday has been spared jail.
Thomas Grayson, 24, punched the woman in the face and when she fell to the ground he kicked her in the head.
When police traced him following the incident he had “visible injuries to his knuckles” from the attack.
Grayson appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing having previously admitted a charge of assault to injury with a domestic aggravation.
Witnesses heard woman ‘screaming for help’
Fiscal depute Naomi Duffy-Welsh said that staff members at the Castle Tavern in Inverness were finishing their shift on August 21 of this year when they heard a woman “screaming for help” along with Grayson “shouting”.
The witnesses went outside and saw Grayson grab his victim and “throw her against the wall, causing her to fall to the ground”.
She said: “He then started to punch her on her face while on top of her.”
Grayson then pulled the woman up but punched her to the head, knocking her back to the ground, at which point he kicked her to the head.
As well as being witnessed by the bar staff, the assault was also caught on CCTV.
Police were alerted and when they arrived found Grayson with “visible injuries to his knuckles”.
The woman was also said to have “visible injuries”, including a “laceration to her head” for which she “declined medical treatment”.
Victim ‘did not support prosecution’
The court heard that the woman was a “hostile witness” who did not support the prosecution. She had been in a relationship with Grayson for three years, the fiscal depute confirmed.
Solicitor Graham Mann, for Grayson, said the couple have been together for a number of years “without event” and added that the incident was “entirely unprecedented”.
He said: “This is a situation where they had travelled up here, they were on holiday together, everything up to this point was exceptionally good.”
He said his client had “no history of this type of behaviour at all” adding: “He doesn’t have recollection of why this happened.”
He appealed to Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood to impose a sentence that would allow Grayson to “get back to normal life” adding: “She obviously, it would seem, wants what he does.”
Mr Mann said that Grayson had adhered to bail conditions keeping him away from the woman but said: “He is hopeful that they will simply resume their relationship.”
Sheriff Fleetwood told Grayson, of Olive Grove, Harrogate: “As far as I’m concerned, if you kick somebody in the head, anybody, the first stop is jail.
“Now I have to consider whether that is proportional or appropriate.
“The only thing that mitigates against it is your lack of previous offending.”
He instead sentenced Grayson to two years’ supervision and 100 hours of unpaid work for the benefit of the community.
He also banned him from entering the street where the woman lives for six months.
