A man has been jailed after using a private investigator to track down a woman and two children in Fife and then assaulting all three when they were found.
Sunderland man Liam McConville hired a private snoop to track the trio down to Dunfermline.
McConville had already mounted a sinister campaign of intimidation against the woman – in person and by phone message – including issuing death threats, at an address in Methil.
The 29-year-old then employed the services of an independent gumshoe to trace the woman to Dunfermline.
On May 31 in 2020, he attacked her and two children at the property.
Attacked woman and children
McConville, of Hunter Street in Shiney Row, Sunderland, was found guilty by jurors at Dunfermline Sheriff Court last month.
He repeatedly shouted and swore, punched and kicked a door causing damage to it and pushed over a TV.
He threatened to kill the woman and attacked her, seizing her by the throat and compressing it to restrict her breathing.
McConville pushed her against a wall and forced her to the ground before seizing her by the hair and pushing her.
He attacked a young boy by striking him on the head and kicking him to the body.
McConville also seized him by the neck and lifted him off the ground.
Both he and the woman sustained injuries.
Jurors agreed McConville also pushed an even younger boy that day.
He admitted acting threateningly towards police when they arrived.
Death threats
He was further convicted of earlier acting in a threatening manner at a house in Methil in August 2019.
He repeatedly struck a door and a window there, shouted and swore and repeatedly threatened to kill the woman.
He repeatedly contacted the woman by text and online messages and sent her a photograph of him with material tied around his neck and around the branch of a tree.
He loitered around the property and also shouted through its letterbox.
‘Fully accepting’ of guilt
McConville appeared from custody to be sentenced this week.
His solicitor Matthew Berland acknowledged there had been “aspects of minimisation and denial” by his client.
“Mr McConville may have been finding it difficult to come to terms with what’s happened.
“I’ve spoken to him about that.
“He appears before you this morning fully accepting his guilt.
“Mr McConville is someone who has never benefited from any counselling or treatment.
“He was being messed about.”
Jailed
Sheriff Charles Macnair QC jailed McConville for 21 months and 54 days, backdated to January 21.
He said: “All of this is extremely distressing, serious abuse.
“Then, on May 31, you were involved in a sustained incident of abuse.
“The violence to the woman involved seizing her by the throat and compressing that, restricting her breathing.
“That is a very serious form of assault and it can have devastating consequences.”
In relation to the older child who was attacked, the sheriff said: “We’ve seen the catalogue of injures.
“I have taken into account that you are a first offender.
“These are serious offences.
“Having regard to the nature of the offending, I’m satisfied that the only appropriate disposal is a custodial sentence.”
The sheriff also issued a trio of non-harassment orders.
