A sheriff said there is nothing to suggest the fire service should sack a Tayside firefighter whose job “hangs in the balance” after being convicted of attacking his ex-partner.
Chris Vesey was convicted of the brutal assault after a trial in Dundee.
His victim was left with a red face and bleeding lip after he hit her head against the bedroom floor.
The Tayport-based firefighter returned to the dock this week and was ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work and banned from contacting the woman for 14 months.
After defence solicitor Paul Parker-Smith said Vesey’s job “hangs very much in the balance,” Sheriff John Rafferty said his employers could retain the 31-year-old’s services.
The sheriff said “nothing stipulated” should prevent him from being able to resume work as a firefighter but added: “These are not matters for me.
“I think you’ve exhibited through your life that you can conduct yourself in a law-abiding manner.”
‘Shocking’ single incident
Although Vesey denied assault, at the end of the trial Sheriff John Rafferty said his victim’s evidence was “very credible and reliable”.
The woman hesitated before telling police about the beating she received in February this year because she was concerned Vesey would lose his job.
The sheriff said: “This court and courts in Scotland, consider quite properly that any assault of a domestic nature is a serious matter, as this is.
“I consider this incident to be entirely out of character.
“Your partner indicated in terms that it was a single incident.
“She said that you’d never before laid a finger on her.
“To some extent, that made this incident all the more shocking.”
Fire service reaction
Area Commander Mark Bryce is the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s Local Senior Officer for Stirling-Clackmannanshire-Fife.
He said: “We are aware that Chris Vesey has been found guilty of assault and sentenced at Dundee Sheriff Court.
“The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service expects the very highest standards of all its employees.
“This matter is already subject to our internal disciplinary policies and procedures and our investigations will continue.”
Evidence
Vesey’s victim told the court she had been in the bedroom when he arrived, “angry”.
He called her names and accused her of being unfaithful.
He came from behind her, after forcing his way into the bedroom, struck her with the door, forced her to the floor and hit her head off the ground.
The ex-partner told the court: “I was shouting ‘get off me’.
“He hit my head off the floor.
“I looked in the mirror and saw my face, my lip was bleeding.
“It was a shock, he had never hit me before.”
During her evidence and in her statement to police she admitted she had hit Vesey in retaliation.
Vesey, of Tay Street, Tayport, was found guilty of assault, aggravated by it being against a former partner, on February 11 2022 at an address in the town.
After the trial, solicitor Ian Houston, defending, told the court: “This decision could have severe ramifications on the accused.”
