A terrified woman was thrown from a car being driven erratically by her violent partner, a court has heard.
The woman was screaming to be allowed out of the vehicle being driven at high speeds and through a red traffic light in Crossgates by serial domestic abuser Mark Cochrane.
Cochrane then swung his car to the right at speed and the woman was thrown out on to the road, Dunfermline Sheriff Court was told.
“She was sick as she lay on the roadway, crying hysterically,” said depute fiscal Claire Bremner.
“He went over to her and told her to ‘shut up’, putting his hand over her mouth.”
Cochrane, a prisoner at Perth, admitted driving erratically with his former partner as a passenger, driving through a red light and at excessive speeds, refusing to stop to allow her out, turned the car sharply causing her to fall out of the moving vehicle to her injury.
On various occasions between April 1 and September 9 at addresses in Cowdenbeath, Kelty, Edinburgh, the Victoria Hospital, Kirkcaldy, Lynebank Hospital, Dunfermline and various roads in Crossgates, he engaged in an abusive course of conduct towards the same woman.
He repeatedly shouted, swore, made threats of violence and abusive remarks, sent threatening text messages and emails, persistently phoned her, seized a car key to prevent her from driving, threatened to attend at her daughter’s school and her place of work, repeatedly attended her house uninvited and attended at her hospital appointments without her agreement.
Whilst she was driving a car, he pulled the steering wheel causing the vehicle to swerve across the road, cut up clothing and threw it in the garden, repeatedly made threatening phone calls and threatening gestures to her.
The charges were among a catalogue of domestic abuse offences Cochrane admitted, taking place from 2007 until this year and involving three former partners.
The 39-year-old pled guilty to offences across Fife and in Edinburgh, including grabbing victims by the throat and repeatedly biting one of them.
One woman said he “made her life hell” .
Sheriff Charles MacNair told Cochrane: “Clearly you are a very abusive man.”
He called for reports and Cochrane will remain in custody until sentencing on January 22.
