An Inverness man has been jailed for more than two years for battering a woman because he did not like her cooking.
Sinclair Ross, 57, carried out a string of assaults on various girlfriends between 1999 and 2013.
The offences happened at addresses in Inverness and Easter Ross.
Ross, who appeared at the city’s sheriff court for sentencing yesterday after previously admitting three charges of domestic abuse, was jailed for 26 months.
Referring to the background reports compiled by social workers, Sheriff David Sutherland told Ross: “There is no doubt that you were a product of your upbringing, but ladies have to be protected form behaviour like this.
“Not withstanding you do not have a lengthy criminal record, only a custodial sentence is appropriate.”
Although he pleaded guilty to three charges, they encapsulated an unspecified number of attacks on former girlfriends while living in Inverness and Alness.
The court previously heard that Ross had assaulted Andrea Degan, who he had been in a relationship with between 1995 and 2005, in Alness, with him lashing out on one occasion because of her cooking.
Fiscal depute Roderick Urquhart said: “When she told him to stop complaining and eat up, he pushed her causing her to fall and knock against her child’s high chair which she had to steady to prevent falling.
“She followed him into the kitchen where she asked him what he was playing at. His response was to push her again on the chest, causing her to fall to the floor and then hold a raised fist above her head before lowering it and walking off when she threatened to call the police.
“The second incident, after November 2001, involved Ross grabbing Ms Degan by the hair and pulling her about after she suggested he had paid too much attention to another woman.”
The court heard Ross had also punched Ms Degan in November 2005 after she told him he should be spending more time with his family than with a friend.
Ross also attacked Lesley Thomson, who he was in a relationship with between September 2011 and July 2013, at an address in Inverness on several occasions. During one attack – after she refused to have a threesome – he pulled her out bed by her hair.
In another, he pinned her against a wall by the throat and kicked her.
The court heard that Ross had also punched one of his more recent partners, Mea Jenkins, “more than once” when they were both living in the Highlander Hostel in Inverness at the end of 2013.