A chef who threatened to rape a woman and her children and torch their Fife home has been jailed.
Liam Cochrane claimed during a phone call to his victim that he had put a “five grand target” on her head.
The 31-year-old previously pled guilty to engaging in a course of abusive behaviour towards his victim at an address in Inverkeithing and elsewhere between June 2020 and July 2022 and breaching a bail condition not to contact her.
Cochrane, of Grandtully Drive, Glasgow, was originally given a curfew order for his crimes last year but appeared back in the dock after breaching it.
At Dunfermline Sheriff Court, Sheriff Susan Duff jailed him for six months.
Threat to ‘destroy everything’
Prosecutor Lauren Pennycook told the court that Cochrane and the woman began a relationship in December 2019 but she soon began noticing “red flags”.
He would shout at her for not disciplining her two young children despite her feeling they had done nothing wrong.
In September 2020 she noticed a change in his demeanour towards her and that he shouted and swore at her during arguments.
The court heard that in April 2021, Cochrane was given bail conditions not to contact the woman.
The following month a family friend received a Facebook message from Cochrane which included “threats of petrol bombs” and telling him to “hide his flash car,” the fiscal said.
A few minutes later, the woman’s uncle received a text from Cochrane which said: “Right, I’m telling you, you better get your head f*** psycho niece to get in touch, and I want my stuff back she has stolen.
“I warned everyone. You are the first place I will come to and I’m telling you now, I will destroy everything.
“If you go to the police, it’s your niece that will pay. Be warned”.
‘Graphic detail’ about child rape
A few minutes later, the woman received a text from Cochrane suggesting he would be “going after” her uncle, family friend and her gran if he did not hear from her.
Around 20 minutes later, Cochrane phoned the woman saying he wanted his “f***ing stuff back” and, when she asked him to stop contacting her, he replied: “I’m coming for you, I will kill you, you f***ing slag”.
The fiscal said that around 10:30pm one evening in August 2021, Cochrane used a withheld number to call the woman and said he was going to “kill her and torch her house” and she hung up and called police.
When officers arrived at her home, Cochrane called again and could be heard via loudspeaker saying: “I’m coming for you, I’m at the bottom of the street”.
Police tried to trace him but were unable to do so.
The court heard the next contact was around 2:30am on July 28 202 when the woman received a withheld number call from Cochrane, who told her she should have “kept her mouth shut” in relation to another matter.
Cochrane phoned her again and asked if she was in her home address.
The fiscal continued: “He then said he was going to burn it to the ground with all your (her) family in it before stating ‘you are getting raped, your children are getting raped’.
“He has then gone into graphic detail about how the children would be raped.
“And he told her he had put a five grand target on her head”.
‘Five grand hit’
The woman ended the call but Cochrane phoned her back and stated: “I’m f***ing telling you right now that you dare phone the police. I’m going to shoot the pair of youse’ (referring to a new partner) and the kids.
“There is a five grand hit on his head”.
Cochrane’s defence lawyer argued for a non-custodial sentence and said her client, now working as a chef in a Glasgow café, now has better insight into his behaviour and has displayed some level of acceptance and responsibility.
The solicitor said Cochrane was suffering from poor mental health and alcoholism at the time and “fully appreciates the seriousness of the offence and the threats he made towards the complainer and two children”.
She suggested the threats were empty in the sense nothing was followed through on and they were coming “from a place of anger,” noting that a social work report mentioned he wanted his belongings returned to him.
The solicitor acknowledged a lot of what he said was “completely appalling” and that she is not trying to minimise that.
Sheriff Duff pointed out that Cochrane’s victim did not know such threats would not be followed through on and she was “living in fear” of him.
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