The victim of a five-year course of domestic terror in Dundee said she is “appalled” a sheriff told her abuser she “gave as good as she got”.
Roofer Blayne Cavanagh dished out a torrent of insults to the woman and punched holes in the walls of her address in Dundee.
He poured cheese sauce over his ex-partner’s designer trainers, shredded her clothes and stabbed her handbags.
Sheriff Gregor Murray criticised Cavanagh’s “appalling” conduct but in sentencing, after considering a social work report and an agreed narrative of the facts – which was not read in court – he said the woman “gave as good as she got”.
Cavanagh was ordered to perform 140 hours of unpaid work and made the subject of a two-year non-harassment order after he admitted behaving abusively between April 1 2019 and July 6 2024.
The woman, who has asked not to be named, said: “It’s disgusting to come to that conclusion.
“I’m not the person charged with five years of domestic abuse.”
She said she has since installed security measures in her childhood home and had to give up her career with the Scottish Prison Service due to the effect on her mental health.
Wrecked shoes and clothing
Dundee Sheriff Court heard the pair had been in a relationship for eight years.
The woman said Cavanagh would regularly belittle her, insult her weight and make derogatory comments about her mental health.
The narrative stated Cavanagh went on a “rampage” on June 23 2020 and threw the woman’s clothes out of drawers, took the cabinet apart and threw a television down a set of stairs.
During a string of abusive messages in 2022, Cavanagh said: “Way get run over man.
“You f****** rat. You better no be in when I get there. I physically couldn’t care if you died.
“Your puss is away to get belted. Wait and see.”
In October that year, Cavanagh sent a picture of the woman’s Burberry trainers, in the sink, covered in cheese sauce.
He sent a video two days before Christmas of himself cutting the toes off her trainers with knives, stabbing her handbags and ripping the arms off her jackets.
Sentencing remarks
Cavanagh, of Findowrie Street, returned to the dock following the preparation of a social work report, which Sheriff Gregor Murray described as being in “very good” terms.
Solicitor Gary Foulis said his 30-year-old client was working full-time as a roofer across Scotland.
Sheriff Murray said: “An awful lot of the things I have been shown occurred three, four, five years ago.
“Nothing has occurred since. As you have fairly accepted in the social work report, you behaved extremely immaturely.
“You have grown up a lot since. Some of the things that you did were appalling but the complainer gave as good as she got.
“It wasn’t a one-way street. Against that background, there is an alternative to custody.”
Victim’s anger
Cavanagh’s ex-partner had hoped to see him charged with assault after his outrages.
Her mental health has suffered and she gave up her job at Perth Prison as she continues to get help for her mental health as a result of the ordeal, she said.
She hit out: “I hear there is no tolerance for this kind of thing and it will be taken seriously but then, this is the result.
“I’m still affected by all this. I’m an anxious wreck.
“The home I have lived in since I was six, where my granny raised me, was wrecked.
“I never smashed anything or broke any belongings – it was all him.
“I’m not leaving because my granny passed it to me and it’s precious but I’ve had to fit shock alarms and a Ring doorbell for my daughter and me to feel as safe as possible.
“I’m appalled and will be looking to make a complaint.”
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