A boyfriend-from-hell is back in jail after carrying out an “appalling” attack on his partner who’d picked him up from HMP Perth just 24 hours earlier.
Thomas Douglas was handed an 18-month prison sentence after injuring his partner in a vicious drink-fuelled assault.
He was brought from Perth Prison, where he has been remanded since August, to Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court to admit the domestic assault.
The woman was left with a burst nose and bruising on her face and chest.
She will be protected from any contact for three years by a strict court order.
From jail to Kirkcaldy, then back to jail
Fiscal depute Andrew Brown explained Douglas was released from prison on August 4 this year, where he was picked up by his on-off partner of two and a half years.
They travelled from the Edinburgh Road jail to her home in Kirkcaldy, where they both began consuming alcohol.
The woman woke up at 11.30am the next morning to find Douglas had fallen asleep on the couch.
By 1pm, they were watching football in the property with two other people, when Douglas accused the woman of flirting with his friend.
He began shouting and swearing and grabbed her throat, pushing her into the couch she was sitting on.
Mr Brown said Douglas, 26, held her by the throat for 10 seconds before letting go.
He refused to leave and grabbed the woman by the throat again in the kitchen for another 10 seconds.
He punched her on the face, causing her nose to “burst.”
Back in the living room, he punched her again on the left side of her face and knocked her to the ground.
Douglas proceeded to pin her down, placing both hands around her neck and compressing it for around 20 seconds.
He was spotted by neighbours as he ran off and police were contacted.
By 5pm, officers had caught him.
The woman was taken to hospital, where she was found to have a swollen nose, bruising under her eye and bruising on her chest.
Alcohol ‘not an option anymore’
Douglas admitted injuring the woman in the domestically-aggravated assault.
His solicitor Martin McGuire said: “Parties had consumed alcohol.
“Matters very suddenly escalated.
“He accepts his response to any situation which arose was completely disproportionate and inappropriate and does have considerable regret.
“Alcohol consumption for him is not an option anymore, looking forward.
“He has had periods of stability in the community.
“He has had periods of employment.”
Sheriff Robert More jailed Douglas, backdating the sentence to the beginning of his remand period on August 7.
“This was an appalling incident,” he said.
The sheriff also imposed a non-harassment order, protecting Douglas’s victim for three years.
In 2021, Douglas was jailed for two and a half years after admitting plunging a bottle and a can into one man’s head and leaving another with a fractured eye socket.
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