Assault man will have to pay almost £4,000

A man’s behaviour was “approaching evil” when he assaulted his ex-partner at the Brae Hotel, Lerwick Sheriff Court has heard.

Sheriff Philip Mann said Andrew Smith, 33, of Treefields, Buckingham, intended to cause “maximum embarrassment, and probably maximum pain” when the 30-year-old carried out the attack on 20th January last year.

Smith was spared a custodial sentence, and was instead ordered to pay fines totalling £2,800 – on top of a £1,000 compensation order.

The self-employed roofer had originally been facing a catalogue of charges before a jury trial, which got under way yesterday.

Chief among the complaints was a charge that he had abducted the woman and caused her permanent disfigurement.

But at the beginning of day two Smith, admitted a lesser charge.

He pleaded guilty to seizing the woman by the hair, dragging her across a room whereby she struck her head, rendering her unconscious, picking her up bodily before placing her down again and dragging her by the hair, all to her injury.

Not guilty pleas to other charges were accepted, including assaults and sending grossly offensive text messages.