A jealous chef who threatened to slice his partner’s face to make her look like The Joker has been jailed for 32 months.
During a terrifying four-year campaign of violence and controlling abuse, Dragos Henter pinned the woman on a restaurant floor in Dundee at knifepoint.
The court was told on another occasion, the chef de partie grabbed the handbrake and steering wheel of her car repeatedly as she drove him from Dundee to Perth.
During the trip, the woman was so terrified of what Henter might do that when they went on a walk up Kinnoull Hill she stayed away from the edge in case he shoved her over it.
Sheriff Alistair Carmichael imposed a further 12 months supervised release after being told Henter had been risk-assessed as posing a serious danger to women.
He also imposed a conduct requirement banning Henter from forming any new relationship with a woman without informing social workers.
He was ordered to stay away from his victim for five years.
Sentencing
At Dundee Sheriff Court, Sheriff Carmichael said: “You are assessed as posing a danger.
“The charges represent a course of conduct of domestic abuse by you.
“This abuse included several assaults, punching and striking her on the head, seizing her by the hair, holding a knife against her stomach and threatening to stab her and slash her face.
“You admitted jealous and controlling behaviour, monitoring her mobile phone and her movements.
“She sustained a broken rib which did not repair properly and a perforated eardrum.
“A custodial sentence is needed in order to adequately reflect society’s disapproval of this type of conduct, to punish you and to deter others from similar behaviour.”
Hilltop terror
Henter, 30, of Kelty, admitted a series of charges covering a period from Valentine’s Day 2018 until he was caught with a knuckle duster on January 28 2022.
He admitted assaults in Glasgow in February 2018 and in Dundee later that year
He had punched the woman on the head and body to her severe injury.
Henter admitted that between April 1 2019 and May 13 2020 he subjected his then-partner to a campaign of violent bullying and controlling behaviour.
Fiscal depute Gavin Burton told the court: “On a journey to go for a walk on Kinnoull Hill, he began grabbing the wheel of the car and threatening to make them crash.
“When they got to the top of the hill she made sure not to go near the edge because she was so worried about what he might do.
“He would constantly check up on her and monitor her movements when she was away from home.
“He would repeatedly call wanting to know where she was.
“He would act aggressively and call her abusive names.
“He would threaten her with violence.
“On three occasions he smashed her phones when she got a message from a male asking for a taxi.
“She ended up buying cheap phones as she could not afford to keep replacing them.”
Restaurant attack
In October 2019 she went out for drinks with another taxi driver and asked Henter for a lift home but he drove her to the Don Michelle restaurant, where he worked at the time and let them in.
Mr Burton said: “The accused went to the kitchen and came back with a knife with an eight-to-ten-inch blade.
“He grabbed her hair with one hand and held the knife to her stomach and throat and threatened to stab her.”
During February 2020, she was parked in her taxi outside the Perth Road restaurant when Henter came out and told her he would slash her if she spoke to other men.
Mr Burton said: “He said that if he ever saw her speaking to another male he would get a screwdriver from his car and slash her across the face to make her look like The Joker.
“This made her extremely distressed.”
Accused’s new relationship
Solicitor Ross Donnelly, defending, said Henter had minimised his actions during meetings with social workers but accepted his guilt to the charges.
Mr Donnelly said: “It is a chapter of his life that he regrets and now views with horror and revulsion.
“He simply wants to put this behind him.”
He said Henter was a heavy drug user at the time and is now in a new relationship.
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