Four years in prison for man who carried out campaign of abuse

A man who subjected a woman and her three children to “hundreds” of beatings as part of a “dreadful catalogue of abuse” was yesterday jailed for four years.

James Skelly brutally attacked the three children – aged between 7 and 9 – of a woman he had started seeing over the period of 21 months.

In one attack he threw one of the children against a wall so hard that the wall was damaged while in another he told one of his victims: “I wish you were dead.”

One of his victims later told police that Skelly had battered the children “hundreds” of times.

Skelly was only caught after attacking the children’s mother – who cannot be named to protect the identity of the children – prompting her to beg her own mother for help to get away from him.

But when he was eventually arrested brazen Skelly claimed to officers that his relationship with the woman was “fantastic” and denied the allegations of abuse.

Depute fiscal Kirsten Thomson told Dundee Sheriff Court: “All three children told police they were repeatedly physically abused by the accused.

“The oldest child recalled an occasion when he was grabbed and thrown against a wall, damaging it.

“The youngest child recalled being kicked in the body because the toilet was broken and kicked because of an issue in the garden.

“He said these incidents had happened hundreds of times.”

Skelly also admitted attacking another ex – choking her until she began to feel light-headed and prompting her to run from her flat in the middle of the night to seek refuge at Dundee Women’s Aid.

Skelly, 32, of Hawick Drive, Dundee, pleaded guilty on indictment to five charges of assault and one of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner committed at addresses in Dundee and Burntisland, Fife, between December 2009 and December 2014.

Sheriff Alastair Brown imposed a four-year jail term, with a further one year under supervision in the community upon his release.