A man who turned up drunk at a new mum’s door demanding to be allowed in has been handed unpaid work in the community.
Sandon Urquhart told the woman “open this door in 10 seconds or I’m coming through”.
He was later spotted on a Ring doorbell camera outside her home, in breach of bail conditions to stay away from her.
Urquhart, 25, appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court for sentencing having previously admitted two charges of threatening or abusive behaviour, one of breaching his bail conditions and another of breaching a court-imposed curfew.
Fiscal depute Grant McLennan told the court that Urquhart and the woman had been in an “on and off relationship for a number of years” prior to the incident on April 22 last year.
Victim had just given birth
On that date, the woman concerned had just returned from Raigmore Hospital to her Inverness home after giving birth to her first child.
After exchanging texts with Urquhart throughout the day, he arrived at her home around 6pm, before heading back out to “get food”.
“He was away for a period of time and arrived back around 9pm,” Mr McLennan told the court.
When the woman met him at the door he “appeared to have been drinking heavily since she last saw him” and “appeared intoxicated”.
As a result of this, the woman locked the front door, at which point Urquhart began to shout and swear, stating: “Open this door in 10 seconds or I’m coming through,”
The woman’s mother then contacted police.
When officers arrived a neighbour, who had been watching Urquhart banging on the door, told officers he had also “made threats that he was going to come around to her house to fight her son”.
Urquhart was traced by officers who took him to Burnett Road Police Station where he was cautioned and charged. He was later released on bail with a condition that he stay away from the woman.
Ex ignored order to stay away
However, around 8pm on June 14 the woman’s mother received a notification from the Ring doorbell at their home, showing Urquhart at the front door.
A charge from the same date details how he “attended at the locus uninvited”, “acted in an aggressive manner” and “uttered threats of violence” directed at his former partner.
Solicitor Rory Gowans, for Urquhart, told the court his client had been “in a bad place” at the time of the offences and had been “drinking too much”.
He told Sheriff Gary Aitken that the relationship was now over and said: “He understands he behaviour was unacceptable.”
Mr Gowans said: “He has had a wake-up call and seems to have got himself on the straight and narrow.
“Has no desire to be back here, or in any other court, again.”
Sheriff Aitken placed Urqhuart, of Tulloch Square, Dingwall, on community payback orders requiring him to complete 210 hours of unpaid work in the community within two years.
He also imposed a non-harassment order preventing Urquhart from approaching or contacting the woman for two years.
