30 years of horrif ic domestic abuse... just 32 months in prison
A CHURCHGOER who subjected his wife to a 30-year campaign of ‘cult-like’ abuse has been jailed for 32 months – but will be free in half that time.
Robert Simmons forced his victim to keep a ‘mistake book’ and cut her days into 15-minute slots for tasks.
He also hosed her down with cold water in an outhouse, beat her on the legs with a pipe and forced her into a car boot.
Yesterday, a sheriff jailed him for two years and eight months and gave him an indefinite non-harassment order relating to his wife.
However, under current rules, the 62year-old will be freed after serving just half of the term, sparking fierce criticism of the ‘extremely light’ sentence.
The severity of Simmons’s campaign of psychological and violent abuse had sparked calls for his case to be remitted to the High Court so he could receive a longer sentence than the five-year maximum the Sheriff Court can hand down.
But Sheriff Philip Mann yesterday dismissed the suggestion as a ‘lynch mob attitude’ and instead delivered a sentence which will see Simmons walk free at the beginning of 2019.
Tory equalities spokesman Annie Wells said: ‘For a country that’s supposed to be getting tough on domestic abuse, this is an extremely light sentence.
‘Police officers have worked hard to ensure cases like this get to the courts.
‘They will share the frustration of victims and charities at this news, which doesn’t appear to be proportionate to the crime.’
Simmons earlier admitted ten assault charges and one of threatening and abusive behaviour covering a period between 1988 and March this year.
Lerwick Sheriff Court previously heard how he drew up daily timetables of tasks for his wife, divided into 15-minute slots, and punished her if she failed to follow them. The father of six, a regular churchgoer on Shetland, subjected her to ‘one of the very worst cases of domestic abuse’, procurator fiscal duncan MacKenzie said.
Simmons created an ‘almost cult-like’ atmosphere, in which his wife was forced to carry notebooks, including a ‘mistake book’, in which she was made to maintain a record of all the times she failed to please him.
In another book she kept a ‘record of observations the accused would make about random aspects of life’.
Police seized hundreds of these notebooks from their home at Sandness, Shetland, Mr MacKenzie said. Religion was used as justification for his ‘coercive and controlling’ behaviour, he added.
In one disturbing statement given in a police interview and relayed to the court Simmons said that his wife had taken ‘a vow of obedience to me’.
during their 30-year marriage Simmons was said to see himself as the authority in the household, responsible for setting the rules and also for doling out punishment when those rules were broken.
But the rules ‘changed so frequently… that it became impossible for the complainer to get it right’, Mr MacKenzie said.
during the 1990s one method of punishment involved having his wife stand in an outbuilding while he hosed her with cold water. In 1991, he forced her into the boot of a car after she fled the house. The following year he squeezed her throat to a point where her breathing became restricted.
Another incident saw Simmons compel his wife to lie on the floor. He then stood on her head, giving her two black eyes.
In 1998, Simmons pushed his wife to the floor with a force that caused nerve damage which still causes her discomfort.
Another charge related to Simmons assaulting his wife in a car in May 2015, leaving her with a black eye and bloody nose. Later that year he hit her across the back of the legs with a plastic pipe.
After describing the 11 charges Mr MacKenzie went on to detail some of the statements Simmons had made to police after he was detained. On one occasion he confessed to doing ‘hands-on stuff’.
‘She knows I’m serious when I do that,’ he told the officers.
In a statement read to court by Simmons’s lawyer, Tommy Allan, he said: ‘I did wrong. At no time did I think she deserved this. I see things differently now. I don’t think she deserved to be treated the way I treated her, or to have the things I said to her said to her.’
Addressing concerns raised in this newspaper that the case should be sent to the High Court where Simmons could be sentenced to a longer jail term, Sheriff Mann told him that he was not expected to take a ‘hang ’em high, lynch mob attitude’.
But he said that if it had not been for his early plea the most likely sentence would have been four years.
Afterwards, Shetland Women’s Aid said: ‘As the safety and welfare of the women and children who access our services is paramount Shetland Women’s Aid will never comment directly on individual cases.
‘domestic abuse takes the form of coercive control and can be emotional, physical, sexual or financial. It can affect anyone in any walk of life.
‘Sentencing of a perpetrator can only be seen as part of a survivor’s journey to recovery.’
detective Inspector Andy Logan said: ‘The suffering he inflicted is deplorable and I would like to pay tribute to the strength of character shown by his victim in coming forward and ultimately helping to bring Simmons to justice.’
‘An extremely light sentence’ ‘One of the very worst cases’