VICIOUS ABUSER STOLE OUR GIRL’S LIFE
PARENTS’ ANGER AS MONSTER WALKS FREE Controlling bully drove Emily, 18, to suicide
TEENAGER Emily Drouet’s parents endured new grief yesterday as her bully boyfriend dodged jail.
Angus Milligan had admitted beating and abusing the Aberdeen University law student, who took her own life.
But a sheriff said he did not have the power to lock him up.
Mum Fiona hit out: “He is a vicious abuser who stole our daughter’s life.”
vicious abuser who stole our daughter’s life. He preyed on Emily’s innocence and kindness and continues to lie about it, trying to destroy her reputation.
“Emily was studying law because she believed in justice and wanted to make a difference. “This marks her first legal victory.” Fiona, supported by French-born husband Germain, added: “No sentence Milligan received can reflect the destruction he has caused or bring Emily back.
“We must remember that Milligan’s last visit to Emily was minutes before she died.
“We can only hope that by telling Emily’s story, no young woman will have to suffer at Angus Milligan’s hands again.”
Fiona said she was “saddened” by the lurid allegations made in court about a threesome.
She explained: “It wasn’t factual and it was to destroy Emily’s reputation.
“There was no truth in it. Angus Milligan had for a sustained length of time suggested a sexual activity with Emily and ‘his friend’. That sexual activity then happened but it wasn’t on the terms that he wanted.
“And Emily was, by the defence’s own words, too drunk to even remember the activity. There can never be any justification for violence against women.”
Prosecutor Christopher Macintosh expressed disappointment in court that defence counsel Susan Duff had related “in full technicolour detail” the threesome claims rather than refer to “an act of infidelity”.
The family have previously revealed Milligan had sex with other women and pressured Emily to have sex with other men.
He also threatened to reveal details of her sex life to her parents to prevent her from confiding in them.
Emily met Milligan, from Edinburgh, when they moved into the same halls of residence at the start of their university careers.
The court heard that during their relationship, he injured Emily by choking her, pushing her against a desk and slapping her face.
He also sent vicious texts branding her a “slut”, “b***h” and “freak”.
Emily was found dead in her university room on March 18 last year. Milligan had visited her soon before and claimed they had kissed and made up.
But her family are convinced his sustained campaign of physical and mental abuse drove her to take her own life.
Sheriff Garden sentenced Milligan to 180 hours’ unpaid work and imposed a year-long supervision order.
He said as he was dealing with a summary complaint he could only consider custody if it was the only appropriate sentence.
But he said failure to comply with community service would result in it being replaced with a custodial term.
Now Emily’s family are hoping the Crown Office will give serious consideration to holding a fatal accident inquiry into her death.
And they haven’t ruled out pursuing a civil action against Milligan, who continues to study at the university.
During the case, Emily’s parents released a harrowing selfie showing her swollen face just days before she killed herself.
Emily took the photo of the red blotch on her cheek and sent it to a friend to document the abuse she was suffering at Milligan’s hands.
Her mother said: “I want to jump inside the picture and cuddle her. I want to tell her she could have spoken to me, she could have asked for help.”
Aberdeen University refused to comment on the sentence last night but Milligan is likely to face disciplinary action.
A spokesman said: “Students who commit an offence are subject to internal disciplinary procedures.
“Where criminal proceedings take place, we suspend our disciplinary procedures until the criminal case is concluded, at which point these will recommence.”
Scotland’s Domestic Abuse and Forced Marriage Helpline is open all day every day on 0800 027 1234. The Samaritans help people who are struggling to cope with life and can be contacted on 116 123.