A serial domestic abuser has narrowly avoided a jail sentence after he admitted compressing his girlfriend’s neck.
Andrew Brennan, 33, was given a two-year supervision order after admitting the domestically-aggravated assault at Dundee Sheriff Court.
Cowardly Brennan has previous convictions for domestic assault and was jailed for punching a woman in the face during a booze-fuelled attack in 2019.
Seized victim’s neck
Depute fiscal Calum Brown told the court: “The accused and the complainer had been in a relationship since about autumn 2020.
“While on a night out on the date libelled, they had been drinking.
“They returned to the house at around 6am.
“The complainer contacted police to say the accused had assaulted her.
“Various admissions were made to the police.”
Brennan had appeared from custody in March and submitted a guilty plea.
He assaulted his partner by seizing her by the neck, compressing it and kicking her on the body at an address in Dundee on March 10.
Alternative to prison identified
His defence solicitor told the court in mitigation: “He accepts that with his record, he is at risk of a custodial sentence.
“He did plead guilty at the outset.”
Sentencing Brennan, of Sibbald Street, to 140 hours unpaid work and a two-year supervision programme under he Caledonia scheme, Sheriff Jillian Martin-Brown also called for a review, to be held in June.
She added: “Given the nature of the charge — seizing her by the neck — I do think it would merit a custodial sentence.
“But an alternative to custody has been highlighted in the criminal and social work report.”
Past crimes
In 2019 Brennan pled guilty to grabbing the woman by her hair, repeatedly punching her face and biting her on the body, placing his hands around her throat and applying pressure to her injury on Southesk Terrace, Brechin.
He also admitted that he punched and kicked the woman on the head and threw her against a wall, causing her to strike her head to her severe injury, on Arbroath’s Newton Avenue on March 31.
He was jailed on that occasion for 28 months.
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