A violent Fife sex offender has been jailed for sexually assaulting a woman and biting a police officer.
Gordon Firth was convicted in March 2020 for attacking a woman with a metal pole in the middle of an Aberdeen street, leaving her bleeding heavily and needing stitches but was released early in July last year.
A few months later, on December 31, he sexually assaulted a woman by touching her bottom at a Hogmanay party in Cowdenbeath.
Firth, 27, of Robert Smith Court in Lumphinnans, also admitted assaulting a detective constable by biting him on the body, over his clothing, on the same date and location.
Defence solicitor Alan Jackson told Dunfermline Sheriff Court Firth had been drinking with his partner on New Year’s Eve and were invited to a party by strangers.
Mr Jackson said: “He behaved in the manner described and slapped the girl (on the buttocks) and accepted culpability.
“It seems what’s happened here is he has gone beyond the boundary when under the influence of alcohol.”
Repeat offender
Sheriff Charles Macnair noted Firth has a “very bad record,” including previous convictions for sexual assaults in 2014 and he has continued to offend in various different ways since then.
The sheriff said: “In particular, you committed a serious offence which resulted in a lengthy custodial sentence which does not expire until February 2023.
“There is a significant unexpired portion of your sentence still to be served.
“Having regard to the nature of this offence, this was committed against someone where you had been invited for New Year’s to a party and you abused that hospitality by committing the sexual offence.
“In my view only a custodial sentence is appropriate.”
Sheriff Macnair sentenced Firth to 270 days in prison for the latest offences.
He said Firth, who has been remanded in custody since January 3, would also be serve four months of his previous sentence from March 2020, from which he was released early.
Metal pole attack
Firth was convicted on March 13, 2020 for attacking a woman with a metal pole in Aberdeen’s Market Street Lane on November 30 the previous year.
The Press and Journal reported he had been carrying a bottle and appeared to be drunk and was causing people to cross the road as they tried to avoid him.
He tried to grab a carrier bag from a woman at a bus stop at around 10.15pm but she swung the bag at him and he kicked a wheelie bin over.
Fiscal depute Colin Neilson told the court the woman phoned the police as the bin hit her on the leg.
While she was on the phone Firth punched her in the face then picked up a metal pole sticking out of the bin and threw it at her forehead.
The woman was left bleeding heavily, with a two-inch cut to her head which required stitches.
Firth continued down the street and was apprehended on Victoria Bridge, where he spat at and kicked police.
He later shouted insults at another officer, referring to the man’s English nationality.
In April 2020 he was jailed for a total of three years for these crimes, including an 18-month sentence for the attack on the woman.
