A “selfish and manipulative” Dundee teenager who battered his six-months pregnant girlfriend in a “reprehensible” attack is behind bars.
Jason O’Neil repeatedly hit his then partner on the head with a mobile phone before pouring beer over her, pulling her hair and kicking her on the body.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard that the 19-year-old had punched the woman in the head in a separate attack two weeks previously in the city’s Glenclova Terrace.
O’Neil was sentenced to a year’s detention after admitting two charges of assault and a breach of bail in April.
George Donnelly, defending, told the court that his client had previously regularly used cannabis and led a “solitary lifestyle”.
He said that the “immature” couple would regularly check each other’s mobile phones.
Mr Donnelly said: “She checked his phone and found messages from other females. She woke him up in not a particularly gentle manner, using industrial language.
“He did it in spite of the pregnancy rather than with any malice. He would have struck her whether she had been pregnant or not.
“There is nothing I wish to say about the first assault except it was reprehensible.
“He accepts full responsibility for it and wishes he realised a lot sooner they were no good for each other.
“She has written to him asking to visit. He had the good sense to ignore that and she attacked him in a post on Facebook.”
Sheriff Alastair Brown told O’Neil: “You are selfish, self-centred and manipulative. This court will not be manipulated.
“You may have been indulged by your mother in the past. This court will not indulge you.
“You and no one else must understand that an assault on a domestic partner is never the fault of the victim.
“The man, and it usually is a man, who uses violence is responsible for his own behaviour.
“The victim is never to blame. I can see quite clearly you are immature.
“At the bottom of this is the choice you made not to control your temper. I am satisfied the only sentence is one of detention.”