Bo'ness GTA video game fanatic held knife to partner's throat

A fan of the graphic Grand Theft Auto video game subjected his partner to a year of violent threats and ended up holding a knife to her throat.
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Sam Ferguson (28) threatened to petrol bomb his ex's bedroom and "put bullets" in her and anyone she dated, kept watch on her house, and held a knife to her throat.

His “obsessive jealousy boiled over” as his victim struggled to free herself from their five-and-a-half year relationship and he threatened several men she knew, issuing death threats to one man she contacted on a dating site, and threatened a work colleague who she had added as a friend on Facebook.

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Ferguson, Drumpark Avenue, Bo’ness, appeared at Falkirk Sheriff Court earlier today, having already pled guilty to guilty to assaulting, threatening, and stalking his ex-partner between November 2018 and December last year.

Ferguson was sentences at Falkirk Sheriff CourtFerguson was sentences at Falkirk Sheriff Court
Ferguson was sentences at Falkirk Sheriff Court

Michael Maguire, procurator fiscal depute, said the pair lived only a few streets from each other and Ferguson had threatened to “put her door in and finish her”.

He also threatened to stab her brother, and said: “Don't call the cops, it'll make it worse for you. You can't hide forever sweetie, I'll get you.”

Mr Maguire said around February 20 lat year Ferguson began asking for money from the mother-of-one, and when she refused he held a large kitchen knife to her throat in her living room.

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He refused to leave and slept in her bed ,while she slept on her sofa, and he then messaged her after midnight saying "sorry about the knife, I don't want you to be scared of me. I want to get proper help. I do actually love you and you know I need you”.

When she blanked him, he immediately messaged: “Ignore me one more time I dare you.”

He then accused her of seeing another man, and messaged: “I'll catch you both at it. I'll kill him, I'll take both your heids aff.”

Mr Maguire said: "She ended their relationship as a result of this incident.”

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He then sent other messages threatening her with “explicit violence”, adding, “If I can't have you, no-one else can safely”.

Mr Maguire said: "He threw stones at her bedroom window when he knew she would be in bed. He threatened to throw a petrol bomb through her window, telling her to move her baby daughter's cot out of the room in case she was harmed.”

Ferguson sent the woman a “barrage” of messages, including: “I'll do 20 years in jail -- you're dead.”

He used WhatsApp to message her: “If it's another man, I'll kill you. You'd better marry a tank, and even at that I'll destroy it. It might take 10 years, but I promise you, your pain's coming.“You'd better move country, I'm going to murder you. You'll both be found with two bullets in yous. Your karma's round the corner, bitch.”

He even phoned her employers, and tried to get her sacked.

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She reported the issue to police in August 2019, but he continued to pester her.

Defence solicitor Gordon Addison said Ferguson was “a dark, sullen, withdrawn individual” whose “obsessive jealousy” towards his ex-partner had boiled over.

He added: “One of the interests they both shared was Grand Theft Auto – which is a popular game among the young – in which they go around shooting things and crashing cars and using language appropriate only in the ganglands of New York.

“A lot of the language used by Mr Ferguson during these exchanges was the kind of language used there, and which both she and he knew was not directly a threat that was ever meant to be carried out.”

Sheriff Christopher Shead jailed Ferguson for 22 and a half months, imposed a nine-month supervised release order, and a non-harassment order forbidding him from contacting his victim for five years.