A Dundee man brutally attacked his girlfriend after she dropped his mobile phone down the toilet.
Furious Paul Graham grabbed his victim by the hair, pulled her to the floor and punched her in the face, cracking her cheekbone.
Ann Berry told a jury she thought she was going to die as she curled up on the floor of her Broughty Ferry flat.
The 51-year-old said that Graham then told her: “Phone the police and get me charged.”
Graham, 49, of Sandeman Street, denied assaulting Ms Berry to her severe injury and impairment.
After a two-day trial at Perth Sheriff Court, he was found “guilty by provocation.”
Sheriff Gillian Wade told Graham: “The seriousness of this offence means that it is at the custody threshold.”
Victim relived ordeal for jurors
Giving her evidence behind screens, Ms Berry said she had been in a relationship with Graham for six years.
She told the trial she was watching football at home when Graham returned from the pub on January 19, last year.
The couple had a drink together and played a game of darts in the hallway.
But the evening took a terrifying turn after Graham mentioned a barmaid he used to go out with.
“He was texting,” she said.
“I asked him if he was still messaging her.”
Fiscal Depute Michael Sweeney asked Ms Berry: “How did that go down?”
She replied: “He could do what he wants. That was his words, more or less.”
Ms Berry said: “I was shouting at him. I was angry and hurt.
“I kept repeating ‘get out of my house’.
“He was just lying on the bed, laughing.”
Chased through the flat
Ms Berry said she picked up Graham’s mobile phone from a bedside cabinet.
“I headed out of the room.
“I said I would give him back the phone at the front door, once he had left the flat.
“He’s very protective of his phone, he doesn’t let anyone touch it.
“He jumped up and ran towards me.
“In my head I thought if I dropped the phone down the toilet, it would give me a chance to escape while he was trying to get his phone back.”
Graham followed her to the bathroom shouting: “Give me back my phone.”
Ms Berry said: “He grabbed me by the hair and pulled me to the floor, out of the bathroom.
“I was just trying to curl up into a ball in the hallway.”
Ms Berry said she was punched in the face as she tried to get back on her feet.
“I ended up back in the bathroom and my head bounced off the floor.
“I just remember thinking: ‘Okay, we’ll that’s it. I was away to die’.”
‘Get me charged’
Ms Berry said Graham went to the kitchen and came back with a pack of frozen sausages for Ms Berry to hold against her face.
“Paul was telling me to phone the police.
“He said: ‘Phone the police and get me charged’.”
Ms Berry said she did not call police that night but instead, curled up on the floor of the kitchen and cried.
The jury heard Ms Berry was later treated at Ninewells for a fracture to her right cheek bone.
Verdict
The jury of nine women and seven men took just under an hour to return their verdict.
Defence solicitor Paul Parker-Smith said: “The charge remains serious but it is significant that he was been found guilty by provocation.”
He said his client had been out of trouble – apart from a minor traffic offence – since he was 18.
Sheriff Wade told Graham although the matter met the custodial threshold, “that does not mean it is the most appropriate disposal“.
Sentence was deferred for reports until December 12 and Graham was released on bail.
