A man threatened to throw his ex partner’s mother’s ashes over a balcony.
Gavin Reid had been struggling with drug misuse during lockdown, and after a night of drinking flew into a rage following a phone call with his family.
The 34-year-old took his anger out on the woman, accusing her of stealing tablets from him, assaulting her and making the vile threat over her mother’s ashes.
Fiscal depute Lynzi Souter told Aberdeen Sheriff Court: “The complainer and the accused are ex partners. They had been in an on-off relationship for approximately 19 years.
“During the evening of July 17 the complainer and accused were within the locus and they were consuming alcohol together.
“About 1am on July 18 the accused had taken a phone conversation with family members and the complainer noted that he seemed to be irate.
“He began to shout and swear.
“He then assaults the complainer by striking her to the face and kicking her.
“About 1.30am the complainer started to record a video. During the course of this video the complainer confronts the accused about assaulting her.
“The accused is then heard to swear at her and accuse her of stealing some tablets belonging to him, and also states ‘I’ll kill you next time you do it’.
“Still in the early hours of the morning the accused assaults the complainer on two further occasions, once by kicking her to the leg and striking her to the face, and he also seized the complainer by the throat.
“This spans a period up to 3am.
“At 6am the accused became aggressive once again and started to shout and swear at the complainer. During this time he threatened to throw the ashes of the complainer’s mother over the balcony.
“At 7.50am the complainer contacts the police.”
Keep up to date with the latest news with The Evening Express newsletter
Reid pled guilty to a charge of assault and also to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner over the incident at an address on Gardner Road in Aberdeen.
Defence lawyer Liam Mcallister said: “Shameful conduct from Mr Reid, he will recognise that.
“This is his first offence for nearly a decade, it’s his first offence of any form of domestic nature and he has been in that relationship, albeit on and off, over a period of 20 years.”
Mr Mcallister said he had spoken to the woman involved who said the behaviour was “out of character”.
He added: “He has struggled in lockdown with substance misuse and drinking on top of that has led to this incident.”
Sheriff Ian Wallace deferred sentence for a social work report and restriction of liberty order assessment to be prepared.
He remanded Reid, of Grampian Road, Aberdeen, in custody until the next calling if the case in August.
This article originally appeared on the Evening Express website. For more information, read about our new combined website.
