A jealous thug hurled an axe and barricaded his terrified partner in his home after being duped by spam emails into thinking she was cheating on him with Russian women and a horoscope writer.
Kenneth Douglas sneaked into Nicola Marshall’s iPad and thought junk emails referring to Russian models meant she was secretly having an affair. He also bizarrely thought she was being unfaithful with a horoscope writer because he discovered junk emails from them had been dumped in her spam folder.
Douglas spent more than three hours subjecting Ms Marshall to a sustained violent attack and held her hostage as she tried to leave on more than 40 occasions, then robbing her of £100. Perth Sheriff Court was told that he produced an axe and hurled it onto the bed in front of her and she had to sit on the weapon to prevent him doing anything else with it.
Sheriff Jennifer Bain KC deferred sentence for reports and said: “This was a sustained and violent attack on your partner, during which you introduced an axe. It started at 9.30pm and was still going on at 12.50am when police arrived.
“The complainer found it a frightening ordeal which will have a lasting impact. It caused injury and upset.”
Fiscal depute Lee-Anne Barclay told the court: “They had been in an on-off relationship since December 2022, but had been known to each other since high school. On the afternoon of 17 May 2024 she was working as a carer.
“She received multiple text messages stating that he didn’t believe she was at work. He said he found things on her iPad she would need to explain.
“He stated he thought she was being unfaithful. He was showing emails from her spam folder.
“He stated that the horoscope was from someone she was having an affair with. He asked why she was speaking to Russian women and why she was pretending to be a Russian woman to meet people.”
Ms Barclay said he told Ms Marshall to leave, but began throwing her things around and repeatedly prevented her from walking out of the Perth flat. The prosecutor continued: “He stated the only way she was leaving was in a body bag.
“She was frightened and intimidated by his remark and his behaviour. He grabbed her by the jacket and dragged her back into the property.
“She estimated she tried to leave 40 times and was stopped by the accused grabbing her. He threw her onto the bed with such force she fell off the other side.
“He threw an axe onto the bed and she sat on it to prevent him doing anything else. He stamped on the iPad. He began to kick at her legs.
“The accused began to barricade the door. He dragged a chest of drawers and a TV unit in front of it.”
Police heard voices from the street and when they forced entry to the property they found it strewn with broken glass from photo-frames Douglas had trashed. Ms Marshall was found to have sustained bruising and when she checked her bank account later she discovered her partner had used her pin number to withdraw £100.
Solicitor David Holmes, defending, said his client’s behaviour had been fuelled by alcohol and cocaine and that the couple had split since the incident. When the court was told Douglas had “convictions aplenty” but none previously for domestic violence, he said: “You’re right. It’s the first and last.”
The court will consider imposing a supervised release order and a non-harassment order when he is sentenced – via video-link from prison because of his anxiety – next month.
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