A Montrose man who was jailed after he assaulted his partner when she was eight-and-a-half months pregnant has won an appeal against his sentence.
Scott McCurrach was jailed for four months by Sheriff Gregor Murray at Forfar Sheriff Court in August for the attack.
However, the sentence was reduced at a hearing in front of Lord Brodie and Lady Dorrian at the Criminal Appeal Court in Edinburgh on Tuesday.
Instead of the jail term, McCurrach was sentenced to a community payback order with 150 hours of unpaid work to be completed in the next 12 months.
The 35-year-old previously admitted that on May 13 at an address in North Street, Montrose, he punched his partner on the face and head and knocked her to the ground.
He then seized the woman by the neck and bit her on the face before striking her repeatedly on her head.
McCurrach, of Strathmore Place, also assaulted another woman who had rushed to her friend’s aid by striking her on the face with his elbow.
A not guilty plea on a third charge of behaving in a threatening manner and shouting and swearing during the same incident was accepted by the Crown.
Forfar Sheriff Court previously heard that McCurrach had been in a relationship with the woman for two years when she found him asleep in the property.
“The accused jumped up from the bed and attacked her by punching her repeatedly,” said depute fiscal Jill Drummond.
“He then crouched down behind her head, placed his hand around her throat, forcing her neck backwards, before biting down hard on her nose.”
Paramedics who later examined the victim found lacerations consistent with a bite on her nose and she also suffered bruising.
The woman scrambled free and ran out of the house, but McCurrach also caught the other woman with his elbow as he continued to swing his arms about.
Defence agent Nick Markowski said McCurrach worked offshore as a service engineer on an ad-hoc basis and had been through a “difficult period” since the death of his father.
Sentencing McCurrach on August 27, Sheriff Gregor Murray said there was no alternative to a custodial sentence and ordered him to serve four months in jail, reduced from six months because of his plea.
McCurrach previously told The Courier: “I’d just lost my father and I couldn’t handle it. I can’t believe I did something like that. Of course I’m remorseful. I just want to get on with my life.”
As part of the new sentence McCurrach will be subject to a supervision order for the next 12 months.