Threatening thug trapped ex in car

Accused with ‘anger issues’ earns payback

A mum-to-be locked herself in her car to escape her control freak ex after he was banned from a baby scan.

Craig Harkins, 36, ambushed Georgina Lyons, 32, as she arrived home and told her mother fo “f**k off” when she tried to come to her aid.

He had hounded her with calls, before appearing in the street and punching her motor after she refused to open the door.

The dad- of- three was found guilty of acting aggressively, uttering threats and lashing out at Paisley Sheriff Court.

Mr Lyons told how the brute waited in the dark when she refused to answer the phone to him.

She said: “My washing machine had broken down and I was doing the kids’ uniforms at my friend’s.

“My phone was going constantly from Mr Harkins, which wasn’t unusual.

“When I got home, Craig came to the side of the car.

“He wanted me to open it or put the window down.

“Craig suffers from quite bad anger issues. He was very worked up.

“He was aggressive and abusive when I didn’t get out the car.

“He was demanding to know where I had been, wanting to know if I had been seeing anybody, why I hadn’t been answering the phone to him.

“I was in the car, refusing to get out.

“He told me, ‘Wait until you see what happens to you for this’.

“It was dark, I wasn’t expecting him to be at my address. “I was really unsettled.” The court heard that the pair had been in a two-year relationship, but this had broken down and Harkins was told he would not be welcome at any hospital appointments.

The hairdresser told how her former boyfriend “hurled abuse” at her mum after she came out to tell him to leave.

She added: “I thought about getting out the car. I didn’t want my mum hurt.

“He was drawing a fist, as if he was going to hit the car.

“As he left the side of the car, he hit it.

“By that point, there were neighbours at the window.

“I was really worked up and upset.”

Ms Lyons told how she waited in the locked car to make sure he was away before finally running to her house around midnight on November 11.

Her mum Linda, 53, had called the police after seeing Harkins wrestle with the car door in Johnstone’s Ettrick Terrace.

She said: “When Georgina came home, I opened the door to help her in with the bags.

“I went to walk outside and he pointed his finger and shouted, ‘you, f**k off’. I jumped back and shut the door. “He was quite worked up. “I really didn’t know where it was going.”

Unemployed Harkins lives with his daughter, 14, at Croftfoot Street, Glasgow, and has two other children, aged eight and nine, and relies on benefits.

The yob claimed he was trying to “help her open the door” and had been waiting in the street for hours to make “face-to-face” plans about future baby scans, which he insists he had been invited to.

Sheriff Tom McCartney refused to believe him and demanded he complete community service.

He added: “I accept money is tight and instead of a fine, I shall make an order to carry out unpaid work – 100 hours for the benefit of the community within three months.

“If you fail to comply, It will be reported to the court.”