News / Trial: man denies assaults on ex-girlfriend
A THIRTY three year old man who denies a catalogue of domestic abuse charges including attempting to abduct his former girlfriend has gone on trial at Lerwick Sheriff Court.
The jury trial against Andrew Smith, who gave an address in France, got underway on Monday morning.
He is charged with abducting his former partner at the Brae Hotel on 20 January last year – seizing her by the hair, dragging her across the pub until she struck her head, rendering her unconscious and causing permanent disfigurement.
He then allegedly forced her into a car against her will and struck her on the head with a knife.
It is alleged that between June 2013 and January 2014 at an address in New Road, Scalloway, Smith assaulted his former partner by strangling her, holding a knife to her breasts and threatening to cut them off.
He is also accused of threatening to slice off her private parts and threatening to throw her out of a window.
Smith is further charged with assaulting her by burning her with cigarettes, repeatedly punching her on the body, striking her on the face and biting her on the nose to her injury in Oxford, Ibiza and elsewhere between July 2010 and June 2013.
Smith allegedly sent a “grossly offensive” text accusing the woman of being a drug addict and a prostitute on 18 January last year.
He admitted assaulting another man, Sydney Johnson, at the Brae Hotel on 20 January last year. But he denied sending an indecent text message to the same man making reference to sexually transmitted diseases, swearing and making derogatory references to the man’s grandmother.
Meanwhile, a man accused of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner towards his former partner has been granted bail.
Paul Stevens, of South Lochside, Lerwick, had his case continued without plea until 28 October when he appeared from custody on Monday afternoon.
He is charged with entering a house at Pundsta Place, Cunningsburgh, on Saturday without invite.
It is alleged that he then shouted, swore, made threats, pulled a telephone cable from the wall and smashed a mobile phone to prevent his ex-partner from summoning police assistance, and threw items around the living room.
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