A Highland sheriff has controversially branded Scotland’s domestic abuse laws “way over the top”.
Richard Davidson made the comments as he sentenced a woman who admitted shouting at her husband in their Lochaber home.
First offender Sharon Cook ended up spending a night in the cells after the incident.
And Sheriff Davidson took the remarkable step of apologising to her when she appeared at Fort William Sheriff Court yesterday.
He admonished the 39-year-old and told her: “This, it appears to me, is yet another illustration of the Scottish Parliament’s fixation with domestic abuse.
“There used to be a time when sensible police officers were conferred with discretion and could have come to your home and sorted it out without anybody being arrested.
“But they don’t have the discretion to do that anymore.
“They have instructions that, if they are called to a domestic abuse scene, somebody is to be arrested and, in this case, it was you.”
Cook, of 21 Wallace Place, Fort William, admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, likely to cause fear or alarm, by shouting and screaming and pushing her husband, Andrew at their home on January 28.
Fiscal depute Ross Carvel told the court an argument which started around 1pm escalated around 7pm.
“This effectively resulted in some grappling, with the complainer restraining her,” said Mr Carvel.
Cook’s agent, solicitor Hamish Melrose, representing Cook, said his client had been married for more than 14 years.
He said: “Mrs Cook was taken into custody, detained in Inverness and appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court the following day.
“I think it took her husband by surprise. The consequences of phoning the police here had been underestimated.”
And he presented a letter from her husband to the court.
He added that they had been arguing over money matters on the anniversary of her losing a child due to a stillbirth six years ago.
Sheriff Davidson told her: “I’m sorry that you have had all this situation.”
He added that when someone punched their wife or did something “equally offensive”, they should definitely be taken to court.
But he made it clear that he did not consider Cook should have been brought before a sheriff.
He said: “If only politicians would take the time to get off their backsides and come into court and see the trouble they are causing for ordinary people who may have an argument in their house, they would see that the domestic abuse laws are way over the top.”
However, his outspoken views were described as “astonishing” by a north politician, who insisted victims of domestic abuse needed to be protected by the law.
Ross, Skye and Lochaber SNP MP Ian Blackford said: “I’m astonished a sheriff is making these kind of remarks.
“We have to have zero-tolerance for domestic abuse.
“For too long people in our communities up and down the country have suffered and they need to have the protection of the courts when abuse takes place.
“The decision to prosecute is taken by the procurator fiscal, based on the evidence presented.”
The Scottish Government last night refused to comment on the case in the run-up to an election.
Cook declined to comment outside court.
