A violent boyfriend from Arbroath has been jailed after leaving his partner’s hair matted with blood when he split her head in a vicious late night attack.
Previously at Forfar Sheriff Court, Kyle Fairweather admitted injuring his partner in an assault in her home on June 8 in 2023.
He punched her on the head and body, pushed her, seized her by the hair and repeatedly struck her head against a wall.
He also damaged the woman’s phone, preventing her from calling for assistance.
Fairweather returned to the dock to be sentenced for the Arbroath assault, as well as three breaches of special bail conditions in place to protect the woman.
On one of those occasions he acted in a threatening or abusive manner and on another obstructed four PCs arresting him.
The 35-year-old has now been jailed for more than a year.
‘Flew into a rage’
Prosecutor Jill Drummond said the complainer and Fairweather were in a long-term relationship but, “in the early hours of June 8, out of nowhere, the accused flew into a rage.”
He began pushing and punching his partner and grabbed her by the hair.
Fairweather repeatedly banged her head off walls as she screamed for help.
“The accused took the complainer’s phone, threw it, damaged it and prevented her from calling her mother,” Ms Drummond said.
A neighbour could hear shouting and dialled 999, before going to the back door.
He saw Fairweather holding the woman by the sides of her head, repeatedly hitting the back of her head off a wall, causing heavy bleeding.
The man shouted at Fairweather to let go, which he did.
His victim sought refuge with a neighbour until police arrived.
Ms Drummond added: “They saw the complainer was covered in blood on her arms and face.
“Her hair was matted with blood and her face was swollen.”
She was taken to Ninewells, where a 3cm cut on the side of her head was glued shut.
Court orders ignored
After being released by the court on bail, Fairweather repeatedly flouted a contact ban put in place to protect the woman.
On July 8, police were alerted to Fairweather’s presence at her home, where he was found hiding in a hallway cupboard.
Police were summoned again on January 22 – the day after Fairweather admitted his assault – after he had been banging and shouting in the woman’s flat.
They caught him again at the property on February 16 this year.
He tried to sneak out a rear window and activated a PC’s emergency button while trying to flee justice.
Heroin habit
Fairweather had been out of trouble since 2019 but has domestically-aggravated convictions from 2010 and 2014, one of which resulted in him being jailed.
Solicitor Billy Rennie said his client was living in homeless accommodation at the Aboukir Hotel in Carnoustie.
He said: “Both parties have been drug users.
“He also reports to me that the complainer very much wanted to continue the relationship.
“She has ongoing difficulties. He tells me that she is currently in hospital as a result of serious drug issues that arose in recent weeks.
“It’s a situation where both parties want the relationship to continue.
“She has needs that on the face of it appear to have been supported by Mr Fairweather.
“He’s been using heroin. There’s a need for him to stop that. He’s expressed remorse.”
Victim ‘deserves a break’
Sheriff Paul Ralph jailed Fairweather for 67 weeks altogether, noting he had breached the same bail condition on other occasions.
The sheriff also criticised him for omitting key details of the assault when giving his account to social workers.
He said: “You’ve been given lots of chances.
“I make this the fifth or sixth breaches of the bail order imposed in this case.
“You continued to do so, even after tendering a plea of guilty to the serious matter of the assault.
“You’re not taking a telling. You’re not learning a lesson.
“(The complainer) deserves a break. There are no alternatives available.”
In 2023, Fairweather was ordered to compensate his mum after taking her bank card to a cash machine after a night of drinking.
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