A thug who sent his ex-girlfriend a video of himself punching and slapping her pet dog has been scolded by a sheriff.
The distressing clip was part of a bombardment of menacing Snapchat messages sent by 20-year-old Brendan Brown.
Perth Sheriff Court heard how his former partner woke to a series of texts from Brown, including a violent threat to have her dad murdered.
As part of the campaign of abusive messages, Brown filmed himself repeatedly beating the woman’s terrier, Luna.
Sheriff William Wood told him: “You come before this court for the first time as a young man with a number of issues.
“It is a matter of concern that you behaved in this particular way, and that you took out your anger and frustration on a defenceless animal.”
Brown, of Hay Street, Coupar Angus, admitted a single charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner, likely to cause fear and alarm, towards his ex and her mum in Blairgowrie on April 6.
Snapchat bombardment
Fiscal depute David Currie told the court on Wednesday: “Just after 10.30am, the complainer woke up and saw that she had received Snapchat messages from the accused.
“She opened up the app and saw several messages along similar lines.
“The first one said: ‘You’re so f***ing horrible. Just f*** off.’
“The accused wrote: ‘My whole family is going to message your family’ and ‘you’re not going to get me to jail’.”
In one message, Brown told her: “This is just the beginning.
“You have opened up a mega can of worms.”
He added: “I hope you just understand that you’ve ruined life for your family.”
Dog abuse video
Mr Currie said: “The complainer and her mother told him to stop sending messages.
“He was told: ‘The police have been called, please stop.'”
Brown replied that he knew someone “who would kill any c*** for me, especially your f***ing dad. Cut him to f***.”
Mr Currie told the court: “There was some more back and forth between them.
“He was basically telling her go on, phone the police.
“A video was sent showing the accused slapping a Staffordshire Bull terrier on the head.
“He appeared to be punching the dog as well.
“The complainer was extremely shocked by the footage.”
Mr Currie said: “Police attended at the house of the complainer and took screenshots of the messages.
“The accused was traced, cautioned and charged.”
Full of remorse
Solicitor Steve Lafferty said the relationship was going through a “difficult” patch at the time but could not explain what had prompted his client to send the messages.
“This was a complete over-reaction,” he said.
“He knows it was completely inappropriate and he is very remorseful.”
Sentence was deferred until November 10 to allow Brown to progress on the Right Track programme for young offenders.
The court heard the ex-partner, whose family have declined to comment on the case, did not want a non-harassment order against Brown.
Social media service Snapchat allows users to share videos of up to 60 seconds duration.
Its servers are automatically designed to automatically delete clips when they have been viewed by all recipients.
