A man held a knife to his wife’s chin and asked her if she wanted to die after she refused to do the dishes, a court has heard.
Ricky Guillot, 51, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted charges related to the physical and mental abuse of his former wife between 2018 and 2023.
Guillot admitted assaulting the woman and shoving her out of his house during one argument at an address in Insch in May last year.
On the same occasion, Guillot pulled a knife on the woman and put it up to her face before asking: “Are you wanting to die today?”
Series of assaults
Fiscal depute Georgia Laird told the court that during one argument between Guillot and his then-wife in December 2019, she recorded a conversation in which he threatened to “kick her fat ass” and “slap that look out of her face”.
And during a struggle between them the woman states that Guillot is “hurting her”, to which he replies: “I know, I’m deliberately doing it.”
“It doesn’t mean you can hit my head against the wall,” the woman is then heard to say.
During a prolonged argument between the pair on May 12 last year, Guillot grabbed the woman by the neck and tried to throw her out of their house.
As she turned sideways and out of his grasp, Guillot then attempted to put the woman in a chokehold and drag her to the ground while kicking her, Ms Laird said.
He then “struck her repeatedly to the back of the head with a closed fist” and “punched the complainer once to the back of the head,” the fiscal added.
After the woman refused to wash up the dishes, Guillot grabbed a black-handled kitchen knife from a drawer and held it under her chin, asking her: “Are you wanting to die today?”
He then pushed the woman out of his house and through the backdoor and locked it behind her.
She was left with several injuries because of the assault.
In the dock, Guillot pleaded guilty to one charge of assault and second of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
He admitted a third charge of carrying out a course of abusive behaviour towards his then-wife.
‘Not his finest hour’
Defence agent Alex Burn told the court that his client had entered into a relationship with the woman and she moved into his home, but soon after things “went south”.
“This clearly was not his finest hour, the relationship was at a very early stage,” he added.
“It’s his first offence and this is out of character for him.”
Describing it as an “extremely serious matter”, Sheriff Donald Ferguson said that the court was “completely entitled to impose a custodial sentence”.
“This relationship went badly wrong, and you probably should have been together at that point – the longer you were together the worse it got.
“Thankfully, it’s now over.”
Sheriff Ferguson made Guillot, of Golf Terrace, Insch, subject to a community payback order with supervision for two years and ordered him to take part in a domestic abuse programme.
He also made him subject to an electronic tag and put a non-harassment order in place, meaning he cannot approach his former partner for two years.
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