Sheriff jails man for three years for violent domestic attacks

A man who choked his teenage girlfriend so viciously that “she thought he was going to kill her” has been jailed for three years.

Robert Murray began a relationship with the girl when he was 20 after they met at a party. Within weeks he had begun assaulting her – a pattern that carried on for almost twoand-a-half years.

A court heard police were called repeatedly but that Murray had been released on bail by courts eight separate times during their relationship and went on to abuse her further every time.

Following his assaults, Murray would tell the girl to cover up the attacks and say she had been in a fight with someone else.

She agreed to the lies in the hope it would keep him calm.

The string of attacks only came to light when police called on her to investigate a completely unrelated incident.

While speaking to the officers about the other matter she revealed the horror of the abuse she had been subjected to.

Murray is now starting a three-year jail term for what a sheriff described as “violent, controlling and abusive behaviour towards a young woman”.

The court heard how on one occasion Murray smashed the girl’s iphone before grabbing her by the hair and repeatedly slapping and punching her on the head. He later smashed her head off a wall and attacked her in front of her sister.

When the other woman intervened Murray hurled abuse at her.

His girlfriend stood up and tried to get between the two of them, prompting Murray to throw her to the floor, knocking her unconscious.

On a later date Murray assaulted the teenager after she tried to clean up glass he had smashed as he forced his way into her house.

He put his fingers in her mouth and pulled the inside of her cheek cutting her gums and inner mouth.

He then choked her by putting one or two hands around her neck and squeezing her throat so that she could not breathe.

The court was told the girl believed Murray was going to kill her.

Murray, 23, of Andy Stewart Court, Arbroath, pleaded guilty on indictment to assaulting the woman on various occasions between January 2014 and June 2016 at addresses in Arbroath, Forfar and Dundee.

Defence solicitor Grant Bruce urged the court to impose a community-based sentence instead of sending Murray to prison.

However, Sheriff Alastair Carmichael declined – and sentenced Murray to imprisonment with a 12-month supervision order on his release.

He noted that Murray had 18 previous convictions including sexual assaults and crimes of dishonesty.

Sheriff Carmichael said Murray had been placed on community payback orders four times in the past but had continued to offend.