Driver jailed for assaulting partner

A motorist who was cleared of abducting his girlfriend and taking her on a terrifying high-speed journey through the Kinross-shire countryside has been jailed for assault.

Stephen King had denied kidnapping Jessica McMillan on January 31 this year and a jury opted to reduce the charge to one of assault following a twoday trial at Perth Sheriff Court.

They also found him guilty of dangerous driving.

Sheriff Lindsay Foulis told King, 28, that had he been convicted of abduction, he would have been facing a “very significant” period of imprisonment.

He ordered that King serve eight months and banned him from driving for two years.

Ms McMillan had told the court she tried to flee King’s car as he drove along the Kinross to Kincardine road. She said he had dragged her back to the car and took off, crashing the gold Volvo into a ditch while ripping out her hair extensions and then driving off again.

King was stopped by an unmarked police car, with officers suspicious a young man was at the wheel of “an old man’s car”. Officers found her hair extensions on the car floor, but King claimed the beauty therapist’s extensions had fallen out naturally. He said she had packed several when she left his house after a row.

King was convicted of assault, and of driving dangerously while at speed by crashing into a ditch on a journey between Kinross High Street and the A977 road on January 31 this year.