‘Soft touch justice’ as abuser avoids prison

Campaigners slam decision to let man walk free after years of domestic abuse

Shocked campaigners have branded the decision to let a serial domestic abuser walk free from court “an embarrassment” and “soft touch justice at its worst”.

Business owner Jamie Doak abused three partners over a period of 13 years and forced his victims to recount their ordeals during a lengthy trial.

However, he dodged jail after his legal team said the offences had taken place “at a different time in his life” and revealed he is expecting a baby with his girlfriend.

The Scottish Conservatives said failure to jail Doak sent out “completely the wrong message to domestic abusers”.

The 41-year-old arrived at Perth Sheriff Court with a bag of clothing in anticipation of prison and offered to pay compensation to his victims at a rate of £500 a week in an effort to retain his liberty. Neither gesture was required as Sheriff Christopher Shead handed him 240 hours of unpaid work and a requirement that he seek “education”.

Doak, who founded Auchterarderbased Arc Steel Commercial, had physically attacked his victims time and again, leaving the women physically and mentally scarred. Until he told the court at his sentencing hearing he “accepted responsibility for his actions”, he had refused to note his guilt.

He forced the women to appear at court to give evidence, dismissed the victims’ recollections of his violent outbursts as “nonsense” and attempted to blacken their characters.

Jurors, however, found him guilty of four charges of assaulting and injuring three different woman after days of evidence. Sheriff Shead agreed with his legal team that there was an alternative to custody.

Doak, of Ruthven Street in Auchterarder, was found guilty of assaulting the first woman between June 2001 and August 2005 to her injury, on one occasion pushing her head against a car window and throwing a television at her on another.

He was also convicted of two charges of assaulting his second victim between October 2006 and January 2008 to her injury and severe injury.

He was found guilty of attacking a third woman to her injury between September 2008 and May 2014.

The incidents took place at addresses across Perth and Kinross.

The Conservatives’ justice spokesman Liam Kerr MSP said: “For a society that’s meant to be serious about tackling domestic violence, this sentence is an embarrassment.

“It sends out the message that someone can embark on a sustained campaign of domestic abuse and be slapped on the wrists as a consequence.”

Mid Scotland and Fife MSP Liz Smith echoed that view, saying: “This verdict makes no sense. It is soft touch justice at its worst.”

It sends out the message that someone can embark on a sustained campaign of domestic abuse and be slapped on the wristasa consequence. LIAM KERR MSP

Jamie Doak