A DJ from Dundee has been jailed for nearly four years after admitting a catalogue of violence towards women, including knocking out his ex-partner by smashing her head with a jerry can.
Ronald Sinclair committed a series of violent crimes including another assault on the woman and her friend and brandishing a knife at police, who tasered him.
He was brought from HMP Perth to Dundee Sheriff Court to be sentenced for offending between January 2021 and January 2024.
A sheriff labelled his offending as “abhorrent” and jailed him for 47 months.
Fuel can assault
Sinclair, 37, admitted assaulting his ex-partner to her injury and permanent disfigurement by striking her head with a jerry can on January 27 this year
A court order was already in place to protect her.
Fiscal depute Sarah Wilkinson explained the accused’s on-off partner had been at The Dolphin Bar in the afternoon but went to his Fintry Crescent home because she had left her purse.
He answered the door holding a green plastic fuel can, with which he struck the woman over the head at least twice, causing her to briefly lose consciousness.
She came to with blood trickling down her head.
Another woman in the property invited her inside to treat the wound and when police attended she made her way into the back garden.
Sinclair was there and she ran towards a neighbour shouting: “He split my head open with a jerry can,” and “he’s a woman batterer”.
At hospital, the woman received a CT scan and treatment for a 3cm cut on her forehead, which left a permanent scar.
Admissions
Unemployed DJ Sinclair also admitted that on November 26 last year, he acted in a threatening or abusive manner at a property in Dundee by shouting, swearing and seizing a woman by the body before throwing her to the ground.
He threatened to harm himself while in possession of a knife and started a small fire in the garden.
Due to the imminent period in jail, Sinclair was also re-sentenced for two other offences.
On New Years Day in 2021, he acted in a threatening or abusive manner towards police on Finlarig Terrace, who had to taser him twice while he brandished a knife.
He also attacked his jerry can victim after entering her home uninvited when he seized her by the hair, pinned her to the ground and repeatedly punched her on the head and body.
When a friend tried to intervene, he punched her on the head, causing her to fall to the ground.
‘In America… you’d have been shot dead’
Sheriff Tim Niven-Smith said: “Before me are four separate matters – they demonstrate a course of conduct.
“You’re a man who is no stranger to the courts and who regrettably is no stranger to violence.”
The sheriff listed a selection of Sinclair’s previous convictions, including:
- a domestic assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement carried out on bail in 2006;
- an assault to severe injury in 2009, for which he was jailed for three years;
- an assault to injury in 2011;
- an assault involving a child in 2014;
- domestic assaults to injury in 2015 and 2022.
Commenting on Sinclair brandishing a knife at police, the sheriff said: “Had it been in America, I suspect you’d have been shot dead.”
He went on: “It’s quite clear that you are a danger to yourself and a danger to the public. Custody is inevitable.”
Sentencing
Solicitor Theo Finlay acknowledged his client behaved “like a lunatic and a dangerous one” and said untreated ADHD is at the root of his offending.
Sinclair was jailed for 47 months in total – two years for the jerry can assault.
He was made subject to a five-year non-harassment order and will also be under social work supervision for a year after he is released.
The sentence was backdated to January 29 when he was first remanded.
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