A man who threatened to kill his former partner and attacked her in her Peterhead home will undergo background reports ahead of being sentenced, a court has decided.
Kevin Morrison was due to stand trial, but decided to enter a late guilty plea before the sheriff took the bench.
Peterhead Sheriff Court was told Morrison – who appeared during earlier hearings under the name Kevin Pringle – punched a hole in a bedroom door and, on another occasion, told his former partner he would put her “six foot under”.
Fiscal depute Anne Mann said Morrison, now of Academy Drive in Banff, and his victim started dating in 2018 after meeting in Kent.
Their relationship would last until April 2024, and produce one child, before she broke things off.
Between those dates, and even after it, Ms Mann detailed verbal abuse and physical attacks.
Ms Mann said on an occasion in December 2021, the couple, their daughter, and her mother were shopping for curtains in The Range in Aberdeen but she could not remember the size needed.
“This caused the accused to become angry,” Ms Mann said.
“On trying to get away from the accused, [she] walked away. However, he held her, pushed her, and pulled her, telling her to pick curtains.
“At this time [her] mother was in the next aisle and could hear the accused shouting and swearing at [her], calling her a ‘slut’.”
Domestic abuser punched hole in door
And on June 3, 2024 – after the pair had split – Morrison would attempt to take their daughter away from her Peterhead home.
He was stopped by her other children, who brought the child to her mother’s bedroom.
“The accused had followed,” Ms Mann said. “And, on not being afforded entry into the bedroom, punched a hole into the bedroom door.”
“On seeing this, [she] tried to leave the bedroom. On trying to get past the accused, he slammed the bedroom door into her arm. This caused her to fall into the door frame. This caused bruising to [her] right arm.”
Five months later, during a telephone call between the two, he would make the threat: “I’ll put you six feet under the ground.”
She contacted the police following the call.
“The complainer in this case is in favour of a non-harassment order,” Ms Mann added.
New partner was ‘spanner in the works’
In his mitigation, Morrison’s defence solicitor, Sam Milligan, said his client had so far obeyed with bail conditions to not approach or contact his victim unless in relation to seeing their child.
Mr Milligan told the court Morrison had been attempting to visit his daughter but the adults in the situation were acting “in something less than an adult fashion”.
The issue, he added, stemmed from his client beginning a new relationship.
He said: “This was a relationship which persisted for a period of six years, or thereby. It was not in any sense constant. There were period where they were together and very much not together.
“Essentially, contact had been working, but the introduction of Mr Morrison’s new partner certainly seems to have thrown – very much – a spanner into that particular works.
“Mr Morrison accepts that the behaviour complained of does him no favours.”
Morrison, who was described as being between work in the construction industry, will now return to court at the end of the month after Sheriff David Mackie called for reports.
Sheriff Mackie said: “The reason I’m doing this is that the court must always be cautious and careful about any case involving domestic violence, which this was over an extended period of time.
“The purpose of the report is to give the court a better insight into the issues that are at work here.”
Before allowing him to leave the dock, Sheriff Mackie told him the court would continue the consideration of non-harassment orders for his ex and her family.