Bully assaulted his former partner as she held child

heriff Craig Caldwell will deal with Iain Doyle later this month

Iain Doyle seized Debbie Penman by the throat and pushed her on to a settee during the shock attack the day after Christmas.

At Falkirk Sheriff Court last Thursday, Doyle, whose address was given as care of 10 Oxgang Road, Grangemouth, had sentence deferred again until February 19 when he is due to stand trial on another matter.

Last week the court heard he and Ms Penman had been in a relationship for around ten years and had three children.

But on Christmas Eve she told him it was over and asked him to leave.

He did walk out – but on December 26 went back to the house in Overton Crescent, Denny.

The court was told Ms Penman heard someone outside the door but did not know who it was. She also said she heard what she thought sounded like bottles coming together.

After walking in uninvited, Doyle confronted the woman and, during the rant that followed, accused her of “sleeping with other men”.

He then grabbed her as she held their youngest child and pushed them over.

Doyle, who has admitted he has “issues” with alcohol, then left the house and his victim called the police.

Bizarrely, the officers were still there interviewing Ms Penman when he returned to the address and they were able to arrest him.

Doyle had admitted assault, threatening or abusive behaviour by shouting and swearing and kicking a door, breach of bail and breach of a community payback order at an earlier appearance, and had sentence deferred until last week for background reports to be prepared on him by social workers.

Defence lawyer Neil Hay pointed out the 27-year-old had no history of domestic violence, but admitted to the court: “This was not a very pleasant experience for this lady and its regrettable the children witnessed it.”

Sheriff Craig Caldwell was told Doyle had been ordered to complete 200 hours of unpaid work last year for another offence, but there were still over 100 hours outstanding.

Deferring sentence until later this month for what he described as a “serious” offence, Sheriff Caldwell said that by that time he expected Doyle to have completed 40 of the 112 hours he still had to do.

And he warned him: “If you don’t you will go to jail.”