A convicted bigot from Dundee who once racially abused Scotland’s first minister has been jailed after severely injuring his girlfriend in a vicious domestic assault.
Carl O’Brien returned to Dundee Sheriff Court to be sentenced after admitting the assault at his Kilbride Place home.
Police whisked his victim to accident and emergency where doctors suspected she had been left with a broken cheekbone after he showered her with punched.
O’Brien, whose criminal record includes racially aggravated rants towards SNP staff, was jailed for eight months.
He was told by the sentencing sheriff had his case remained on indictment as initially prosecuted, he would be spending longer behind bars.
Partner hospitalised
O’Brien, who had been on bail, previously admitted assaulting his then-partner at his Whitfield home on July 28 last year.
He admitted he severely injured her by repeatedly punching her on the head and body.
Fiscal depute Michael Robertson explained O’Brien and the woman had been in a relationship previously for a few months and rekindled it around a month before the assault.
Mr Robertson explained the couple had been drinking together and were later heard bickering.
O’Brien, 27, punched the woman in the face so hard she fell onto a bed.
She reported feeling more blows being struck.
Police took her to Ninewells where medical staff suspected beneath facial swelling she suffered a fractured cheekbone.
She was left feeling dizzy and suffering from double vision.
Behind bars
Sentencing had been deferred for father-of-two O’Brien to meet with social workers.
The offshore worker’s solicitor Ross Bennett, said: “This was a one-off.”
Sheriff Derek Hamilton said: “You are extremely fortunate that this matter was reduced to a summary complaint.
“That limits the sentencing powers.”
The sheriff also imposed a non-harassment order to protect O’Brien’s former partner for five years.
Racism conviction
O’Brien hit headlines in 2023 when he and a woman made more than a dozen abusive phone calls to SNP staff and left MP Stewart Hosie distressed after confronting him with a rant about “a majority white nation”.
The pair said they backed Putin’s war on Ukraine and targeted innocent restaurant customers with racist abuse before clashing violently with police as they were being arrested.
Both also pled guilty to targeting then-First Minister Humza Yousaf with racist abuse in Dundee.
O’Brien admitted repeatedly phoning the Dundee SNP parliamentary office to make offensive remarks.
He was sentenced to a six-month restriction of liberty order.
Previously, a court heard O’Brien was “lucky to be alive” after falling 39 feet from a balcony during a holiday in Portugal.
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