A man was jailed for two years after admitting “tasering” his partner with a stun gun.
Tain Sheriff Court heard that Scott Lapsley attacked his girlfriend with the stun gun in a house in Alness earlier this summer.
The 32-year-old admitted assaulting Colleen Jaffray by striking her on the body with an electric current from a stun gun to her injury at 120 Milnafua in Alness on June 28.
Lapsley, described as a prisoner at Inverness, also admitted illegally possessing the Viper Tech stun gun, which is prohibited under the Firearms Act.
The court heard Miss Jaffray had been left with “prong marks” on her arm following the assault.
But she wrote to the court urging Sheriff Gordon Fleetwood to show leniency to her partner.
Fiscal depute Stewart MacIver told the court both had been drinking at their home in Milnafua, before Miss Jaffray decided to go out to the home of a friend and neighbour.
Lapsley then followed, and was seen by occupants of the house “in possession of a taser, subsequently found to be a stun gun”, according to Mr MacIver.
Lapsley found his partner in a room and urged her to go home.
Mr MacIver said: “The victim described hearing a loud crackling sound and then felt a sharp pain in her wrist.
“Other witnesses heard her screaming ‘He’s tasered me’.”
Police later found Lapsley at home and found the stun gun in the loft.
Defence agent Alison Foggo presented a letter from Miss Jaffray to the court, which said that in a 10-year relationship between them, Lapsley had never been violent towards her.
The letter also described Lapsley as the “family breadwinner” to the family, including three young boys.
Mrs Foggo said the stun gun had been bought at a rummage sale.
She added: “He thought it was little more than an adult’s toy. He now rues the day that he purchased it.”
Sheriff Fleetwood said: “There is no material reason or excuse for your behaviour or why you purchased this weapon in the first place.”