Man branded a danger to women is jailed

Feb 3 2011 by Alistair Watson, West Lothian Courier

A MAN who told social workers he hit his partner on the face to congratulate her on the birth of their child has been branded a “danger to women”.

Drunk Graeme Swan hit the woman as she tried to stop him taking her other seven-year-old child out of her Livingston home at 4.30am to go fishing.

And jailing Swan, who has previously served time for a domestic assault, last week a sheriff said the 29-year-old’s behaviour and explanation did not make any sense.

Livingston Sheriff Court heard that Swan’s former partner had been up feeding their two-week-old baby when he had come home at 2.30am on October 15 last year after an all-day drinking session.

“He came into the bedroom and was told not to sleep in there as he was drunk and she was feeding the baby,” fiscal depute Claire Martin said.

“He went into another bedroom and fell asleep there. At 4.30am she heard him wake up her seven-year-old son telling him they were going out fishing.

“She told him to get to bed and let her son sleep.

“The accused came into her bedroom and an argument took place. He pulled his hand back and struck her on the left of her face with such force that it knocked her glasses off.”

He then left the house with the boy and the police were called. Swan was arrested and taken to Livingston Police Station.

Swan, formerly of Livingston but now of Calder Crescent, Edinburgh, pled guilty to assault.

The 29-year-old also admitted breaching his bail order that forbid him to approach or contact his victim by twice approaching her at her home address.

His solicitor, Daryll Lovie, told the court his client had managed to dig a “fairly big hole” for himself.

“There are concerning aspects in the contents of these reports and I require to tackle them head on,” the solicitor said.

“With his previous record and the matter in front of the court he had dug himself a big hole.

“His explanation of the events clearly make no sense on any level.

“He remembers very little of this incident and was somewhat confused when speaking with social workers.

“I accept that Mr Swan, in light of all the available information, probably deserves to go to prison but in the absence of any rehabilitation work the court should consider first of all allowing him the education that can be found on a probation order and to put something back into the community by performing unpaid work.”

However, Sheriff Donald Muirhead said he had no option but to jail Swan.

Sentencing him to 195 days imprisonment Sheriff Muirhead added: “You do have, for someone of your age, quite a substantial record for violent offences and last year you were jailed for five months for domestic assault.

“You assault your partner in October by hitting her on the face and then you tell the social workers you were congratulating her on the birth of your child, which does not make any sense. It suggests that you are a danger to women basically.

“While there may be some prospect of changing your ways I think the nature of this offence suggests to me, against the background of your record, that nothing other than custody is appropriate.

“You are going to have to understand that if you are going to have relationships with women in the future you are going to have to start behaving or this will happen again.”