Attacked woman in pub car park after night out
A night out in a Perth housing estate pub ended in violence when a 37-year-old man lost the plot and attacked a female customer during a drink-fuelled tirade.
Thirty-two-year-old Julianne Kundl told Perth Sheriff Court: “The evening was fine - we were all having a laugh, just enjoying a night out - a night off from the kids.”
But the police were called to the Mallard, in North Muirton’s Argyll Road, in the early hours of the following morning, an assault trial was told at Perth Sheriff Court this week.
Miss Kundl said Albert McCafferty and his girlfriend Gemma Clark were at the same table.
She had ‘no issue’ with Ms Clark but asked him to leave after he started shouting at his girlfriend and demanding that she leave with him.
In the car park outside, after closing time, McCafferty tried to grab the two women.
“He started saying things about my kids so I hit him,” said Miss Kundl.
Thirty-seven-year-old McCafferty, of Brora Court, gave a different version of events.
He claimed that his girlfriend was being “manipulated” by Miss Kundl and that she had been preventing her going home with him.
He also alleged the other woman had called him a “scumbag” and that he was “controlling his girlfriend.”
That resulted in him being “punched straight in the face.”
Sheriff Wade said she preferred the prosecution evidence and remanded McCafferty in custody after he was convicted of an amended charge of assault.
He was found guilty of grabbing and pushing Miss Kundl on the body in the pub car park on July 25, 2020.
He had originally been accused of seizing her on the neck and compressing it but that charge was deleted.
He was subject to two bail orders at the time - dated January 7 and May 19 this year.
McCafferty also admitted two further charges. The background to these will be given later.
He behaved in a threatening or abusive manner at The Maltings, Dunkeld Road, Perth, on July 21, 2020, by repeatedly shouting and swearing and uttering threats of violence.
Part of that charge which claimed he adopted an aggressive demeanour and struck windows at the premises was deleted.
The accused further pled guilty to repeatedly shouting and swearing, making derogatory remarks, making violent threats and threats of sexual violence towards a 62-year-old neighbour on a number of occasions at Perth’s Brora Court on August 12, 2020.
A not guilty plea was accepted to a fourth charge of struggling with two police officers in Brora Court in a bid to evade lawful arrest on August 12.
Sheriff Gillian Wade accepted that there had been a nine-year gap since the accused’s last conviction but there had been a recent “escalation” in his offending.
She remanded him in custody until September 21 and called for a background report which would update her on his mental health.
The accused begged to be allowed his liberty but Sheriff Wade said she wanted to keep “all options open.”
She added, however: “It’s not a foregone conclusion that custody will follow.”