A jealous and rage-filled domestic abuser has been jailed after subjecting his former partner to terrifying assaults and threats that he would leave her “brain dead”.
Luke James, 28, appeared in the dock at Aberdeen Sheriff Court where he admitted a catalogue of violent attacks and threats against his former partner.
During a series of disturbing incidents, James repeatedly punched the woman to the face and throttled her to the point where she thought she was going to die.
James also told her he would “stab” her and would “end up murdering her”.
Sheriff Philip Mann described James’ actions as a “horrendous chapter of offending” and jailed him for more than four years.
‘I’ll kill you’
Fiscal depute David Ballock told the court that following James’ release from HMP Grampian on July 22 last year, he was abusive to the woman on a daily basis and would frequently accuse her of infidelity.
On one occasion, the woman had accused James of embarrassing her in front of a friend.
James waited until they got home, at which point he shouted at his partner and punched her in the face.
Sometime later, and from out of nowhere, James then announced to the woman: “I’ll kill you. I’ll stab you.”
He also called her a “slag” and stated that she “looked at every man who passed” and dressed up to get attention from men.
On July 29 last year, the couple were in bed when James again began accusing her of being unfaithful.
He once again insulted her and, standing up, threw his mobile phone at her, striking her on the knee.
‘I’m going to end up stabbing you’
Around a month later, James again accused the woman of cheating on him and punched her in the face as the woman pulled her car up outside a friend’s house.
She called him a “woman-beater”, to which he announced that he “was going to end up murdering her”.
When they got into the house, James then asked her friends to “have a word with her” as she was “doing his head in”.
“I’m going to f****** kill her,” he stated, adding: “I can’t take much more from her.”
He then walked behind his partner and made a gun gesture with his hand pointing at her head and made noises as if to shoot her.
James then stated to his partner: “I’m going to end up murdering you, you’re cheating on me. I’m going to end up stabbing you and killing you.”
On August 2 last year, the woman had finished work and had planned to stay away from James but remembered that she had left her mobile phone charger at his property.
Punched woman in face and stomach repeatedly
She called and asked whether she could come by and pick it up, to which he replied: “Please come up here so I can batter you” and “I’m going to leave you brain dead”.
The woman told James he was a bully and he terminated the call.
Afterwards, she called back and believed James sounded calmer, so she went to his address, where she found him hanging out of the window with her belongings in a bag and threatening to throw them onto the street.
As she entered the building and went to his front door, James grabbed her and dragged her into his flat, where he pushed her to the ground and proceeded to punch her repeatedly to the face and stomach.
As she punched the woman’s stomach, she announced that she was pregnant, but he did not stop.
“The complainer managed to get to her feet and attempted to get to the door to leave but the accused told her to look at what she had made him do,” Mr Ballock said.
“She began apologising to the accused and pled with him to let her go. The accused appeared to be holding something in his hands, but she couldn’t see what it was.
“He threatened to ‘slash’ or ‘stab’ her.
Girlfriend throttled
“The accused said: ‘I’m going to murder you’ whilst making slashing motions towards her face.
“Out of fear, she hugged him, hoping this would protect her. He went to the living area while she continued to plead with him.
“He told her that they needed to sit down and talk about things. He pushed her onto his bed, with her landing on her back.
“The accused straddled her and placed both his hands around her neck and compressed it. He moved his hands to cover her mouth and nose and restricted her breathing. She struggled to breathe and believed that the accused was going to kill her.”
The woman begged James to let her go and he informed her she could leave if she cleaned her face first.
She went into the bathroom and saw she was bleeding from her nose and took pictures of her injuries.
When she left the bathroom, James asked for a hug, and she ran to the front door and out of the flat.
The whole attack lasted for around half an hour.
Ran from building and asked for help
She ran downstairs and approached a member of the public and asked her to call the police.
The woman was crying, highly distressed, and had blood coming from her nose and her face and stomach were sore, the fiscal depute said.
Police arrived and the woman was taken for a medical examination where she was found to have sustained a swollen and bleeding nose, swollen lips, cuts and bruises to the inside of her mouth, scratches to her neck, a tender stomach, swelling to her knee and scratches to her back.
Upon being arrested, James spat at police and, while in custody, threatened to harm himself.
In the dock, James admitted two counts of assault and a further two charges of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner.
He also admitted a charge of carrying out a course of conduct that was abusive to his partner.
‘Horrendous chapter of offending’
Defence solicitor Iain Jane told the court that his client “understands that these are serious matters and knows that it will result in a custodial sentence”.
“The background here is that the parties involved were in an on-off relationship for some time, and it was essentially toxic,” Mr Jane said.
“They have just not meshed and Mr James’ mental health was in a terrible state at the time.”
Sheriff Philip Mann told James: “You have got a bad record, and this is a horrendous chapter of offending against your partner.
“There’s no other sentence that’s appropriate other than a custodial one.”
Sheriff Mann sentenced James, whose address was given as HMP Grampian, to 55 months in prison.
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