Falkirk crime: Jail for domestic abuser who poured boiling water on partner

Simon Mathers, 42, put the woman through 12 months of "torture and hell", Falkirk Sheriff Court heard yesterday (Thursday).

Mathers and the 43-year-old woman had been in a relationship for about three years - though they had separate addresses - but his behaviour towards her worsened after he began injecting cocaine, the court was told.

On three occasions in February this year, he accused her of stealing money from him, and attacked her and grabbed her by the throat in the kitchen of her flat in Bo'ness; at another address; and at his own flat in Brightons.

Prosecutor Rachel Wallace said that on two occasions, the woman could not breathe.

Miss Wallace said: "She begged him to stop, but he just kept doing it.

"She said that when on drugs, he always accused her of stealing money."

On another occasion the same month, he put his full body weight on top of her while choking her.

Miss Wallace said: "She thought he was going to kill her."

The woman managed to call police, who found her with bruising to her head, chest, arms, buttocks and thighs, and suspected broken ribs, and took her to a place of safety.

In a final incident, he attacked her with boiling water in the kitchen of his home after "going on at her all day".

He smashed the screen and keypad of her phone with a bread knife, then put it on the floor and stamped on it.

Miss Wallace said: "He then put the kettle on to boil. His victim felt he was going to do something to her, and tried to switch it off but he shouted at her not to touch it.

"He picked it up and threw the boiling water over her, over her shoulder. She fell over, and he poured the boiling water over her back."

He then soaked a towel in cold water and put in on her back, before telling her to phone the police as he was a danger to her.

Miss Wallace said: "She could not call the police as she had no telephone - he had smashed it earlier."

The woman made an excuse and left, before going to a local pharmacist, disclosing that Mathers had poured boiling water over her, and asking for her burns to be looked at.

The pharmacist found a large blister, close to bursting, on her left shoulder, and burns and blisters to her lower right back, and advised her to go to a doctor.

Police were later called and took the woman to hospital, while Mathers was arrested.

Miss Wallace said: "She told the police that the last year of their relationship was torture and hell, mainly due to the accused's drug misuse.

"She said he told her quite often he was going to kill her."

Mathers, who appeared by video link from Low Moss Prison, pleaded guilty to subjecting the woman to a course of domestic abuse, between June 2021 and June 2022.

Solicitor-advocate Stephen Biggam, defending, said Mathers had "found it very difficult listening to what happened".

Imposing the 30-month jail term, Sheriff Simon Collins KC said there was "no alternative" to a custodial sentence.

He also imposed a 12-month supervised release order, which he said was necessary to protect the public from the risk of serious harm from Mathers, and a five-year no harassment order requiring him to stay away from the woman and the street where she lives.