Neck snap taunt beast in jail threat
Rapist caged after menacing calls to ex
A CONVICTED rapist who warned he would “snap” his pregnant partner’s neck continued to threaten her from prison.
Richard Wotherspoon used an illegal phone to call Gemma Mooney and demand that she have charges against him dropped.
Wotherspoon, 31, was jailed for 19 months at Hamilton Sheriff Court on Friday after he admitted attempting to pervert the course of justice.
He also admitted possessing a phone in HMP Addiewell and breaching bail conditions by going to Gemma’s home in Bellshill, Lanarkshire, in September after his release from jail.
Wotherspoon had previously admitted inflicting minor injuries on his partner during an assault at the flat. The court heard he threatened to “snap her neck and take a murder charge” for her.
Wotherspoon – who was locked up for four years for raping a woman in 2006 – was on remand in prison for the latest assault when he called Gemma repeatedly last February.
The beast threatened to reveal “sensitive” information if she testified against him.
Jennifer Cunningham, prosecuting, told the court: “She presumed this was an attempt to discredit any evidence she gave.”
Defence agent Diarmid Bruce accepted Wotherspoon should not have made the threat and added: “He didn’t pursue it and in the end pleaded guilty to the assault charge.”
The lawyer said Gemma had given birth to the couple’s first child in the autumn and described his client as “a proud dad”.
Jailing him, Sheriff Douglas Brown told Wotherspoon: “An attempt to pervert the course of justice will always lead to a severe sentence.”
Wotherspoon was also handed a two-year nonharassment order, banning him from having any contact with Gemma.