A violent thug has been convicted of a savage attack on his mother, which saw him grinding her face into the ground with his foot.
A neighbour told how she felt “sickened” when she found the woman lying in her garden in Scone, screaming for help.
She said her face was so swollen, her eyes were like slits.
The victim’s son Christian Stanford denied the assault, blaming the family dog for his mum’s horrific injuries.
He also denied assaulting a neighbour who rushed to his mother’s aid.
But 26-year-old Stanford was found guilty of both attacks after a two-day trial at Perth Sheriff Court.
Sheriff Jennifer Bain KC told him his evidence was “almost wholly incredible and unreliable.”
Stanford has a previous conviction for assaulting his mum, biting her on the forehead and leaving teeth marks, from August 2022.
‘Sickening’ sounds
The sheriff said: “I accept without hesitation the evidence of your mother, regarding the violent attack you perpetrated upon her in her own garden.
“She described being knocked to the ground and while she lay there defenceless, you ground her face into the gravel path with your foot.
“You then kicked her so hard to the head and body that the noises of her screams and of her being winded by the force of the blows, could be heard by neighbours from across the cul-de-sac.”
The court heard how a female neighbour ran across when she heard the woman’s cries, described by her as “traumatic” and “sickening”.
The sheriff told Stanford: “Although the noises of your mother’s pain and distress appear to have had a lasting impact on (the witness), they had no impact on your behaviour that day.”
Locked out
Fiscal depute Elizabeth Hodgson said that the accused’s mother had been “torn” about giving evidence against her son.
The mum told the trial he had been “the worst she had ever seen him” when he turned up at her home in Scone on July 9 2023.
She repeatedly denied the injuries were caused by her Labrador-springer cross tripping her and jumping on her face, as her son had claimed.
Sheriff Bain said said the male neighbour, who was assaulted, was also a credible witness.
“He described being grabbed by the scruff of the neck and struck to the head as he tried to get into your mother’s garden to help her,” she told Stanford.
“They were so concerned about your behaviour that (the male) then locked the gate, while (his wife) stood guard over it to prevent you from re-entering your mother’s garden, where she remained on the ground in distress.”
Claimed mum tripped over dog
Stanford, who has oppositional defiant disorder and ADHD, tried to persuade the court his mother had fallen by accident.
He said he had gone to her home to walk the dog at about 1pm.
She fell as she opened the garden gate and appeared to have tripped over the dog, he said.
He added the dog then jumped on her and licked her face.
Stanford told his trial that the male neighbour had come at him with a rolling pin raised above his head.
But there was no other evidence the witness had been carrying any kind of weapon.
Solicitor Jamie Baxter, defending, said his client’s version of events had been consistent throughout.
Stanford, of High Street, Perth, will be sentence next month.
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