A terrified man was forced to jump from a 2nd-floor veranda to escape drug-addled yobs who accused him of stealing a purse.
Dean Smart, 34, and Joanna Jones, 40, were taking drugs with the man at Jones’ address on Brough Place in Aberdeen when the fallout occurred.
The pair assaulted their victim and locked him in the address before Garry Black, 39, arrived, held a knife to his throat and stamped on his face.
Their terrified victim, who was also stripped naked at one point, was then locked on a second-floor veranda and jumped in a desperate bid to escape.
Theft accusation
Fiscal depute Lucy Simpson told Aberdeen Sheriff Court the incident began in the afternoon of March 21 2023 when the complainer attended the Brough Place address.
Jones had arranged for £600 worth of cocaine to be delivered to the flat, but on looking for her purse could not find it.
Jones, Smart and the complainer all spent several hours searching until Smart accused the man of having stolen it.
The complainer denied and turned out his pockets but Jones and Smart did not believe him.
Smart then ordered the man to take his clothes off to prove he did not have the purse.
He did so, removing his two jackets, T-shirt, jeans, thermal leggings, boxers and socks before getting redressed.
Throughout this, the man had been messaging his partner advising of what was happening and stating he was “terrified he was about to be attacked”.
Knifeman arrives
Smart then took the man through to a bedroom and punched him in the face repeatedly, demanding he hand over the purse.
The complainer went to sit next to Jones on the sofa and tried to reason with her, but she also began punching him in the face and used a dog rope toy to repeatedly hit him on the head.
Smart then followed up by kicking the man in the face around three times and warning him he “wasn’t getting out” of the flat until the purse was found.
A short time later, Black arrived at the flat and held an “all-metal knife”, around 15cm in length to the man’s throat.
He then put the complainer on the ground, placed his foot on his neck and stamped on his face a number of times.
The man was then allowed to stand up to continue searching for the purse and Black left.
A chance to escape
Ms Simpson told the court: “Smart pointed out that the complainer had dog faeces on his back from being put on the hallway floor, and so pushed him out onto the veranda and returned into the flat.
“The complainer saw this as his only opportunity to leave and ripped the safety netting from the veranda and went over the edge, dropping on to the roof of the row of shops below, before dropping down further to the ground.
“He felt instant pain as he landed on his feet and then onto his back.
“The complainer got to his feet and ran towards the Back Hilton Chip Shop.”
He was found to have suffered a bruised and swollen left eye socket, a scratch to his nose and cuts to his hands.
Black, of HMP Grampian, pled guilty to a charge of assault to injury.
Smart, of HMP Grampian, and Jones, of Brough Place, pled guilty to abduction and assault to severe injury.
Histories of drug abuse
Defence agent Tony Burgess, representing Smart, explained the drop from the second-floor veranda onto the roof of the shops was around 14 feet, then another 8 feet onto the ground.
He said drugs played a “significant part” in Smart’s behaviour which he “deeply regrets”.
The solicitor said Smart had been remanded since April 3 last year and had used the time to “reflect” on his criminal behaviour and the causes of it.
He added that the birth of Smart’s second child had been a “turning point” for him.
Lawyer Mike Monro, representing Jones, said: “Why did this happen? It happened because the accused and others, including the complainer, were heavily involved in drug abuse.
“If you look at the dock, it’s pretty obvious which one is the pathetic one of the three, and that’s Ms Jones.
“She is certainly not the fittest person and will never be due to medical conditions which are not drug-related.
“She has sought solace in illegal drugs to try and take away the pain which her medical condition creates.”
‘All hell broke loose’
Mr Monro said the complainer and Jones were in a “semi-relationship”.
On the day in question, he said a “dispute” arose about the missing purse and the group concluded “only one person could be responsible”.
The solicitor added: “Whether that was the case, nobody will ever know.
“Money was not available for the purchase of drugs and all hell broke loose.”
Mr Monro said his client was “not the principal actor” in the offence but accepted she had punched the victim and hit him over the head with the dog toy, which he described as a “tuggy”.
He clarified: “The dog pulls on it, the owner pulls back and it’s supposed to be entertaining for both sides.”
Gail Goodfellow, lawyer for Black, spoke for just shy of a quarter of an hour despite her client’s fleeting involvement in the attack.
She said her Black, who is currently serving a sentence for a domestic assault, has a “long history of drug misuse”.
She told the court Black suffered from PTSD and had resorted to drug use as a “coping mechanism”.
Jail sentences
Mrs Goodfellow went on: “His sole purpose in visiting the property that evening was to source drugs.
“On arrival, he stumbled across this very unfortunate situation in which he regrettably became involved.”
Sheriff Ian Duguid KC jailed Smart for 27 months, backdated to April 3 last year, with a nine-month supervised release order.
Jones was handed an 18-month supervision order.
The sheriff told Black it was “almost incomprehensible” why he had become involved.
Taking account of the 155 days he had already spent on remand, Sheriff Duguid jailed him for 22 months with a nine-month supervised release order.
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