A year in jail for Falkirk bully boy Brickstock

Jason Brickstock (41) attacked his girlfriend on Colonsay, in the Inner Hebrides, after she joined him on the island while he was working there as a contractor.

The incident left the 43-year-old woman with fingerprint bruises on her neck, more bruising where Brickstock grabbed her throat, and cuts and bruising to both cheeks and the tip of her nose, as well as bruising extending up her right cheek to her right eye, and swelling to her chin and lips.

Yesterday, Falkirk Sheriff Court heard Brickstock kicked open the locked door of the bedroom in the Colonsay Hotel where his partner had retreated as an argument between them raged.

Prosecutor Michael Maguire said he struck her repeatedly on the head and body before seizing her by the throat and compressing it, restricting her breathing.

The incident briefly ended when Brickstock left to sleep in his van in the car park, but later flared up again.

His girlfriend was treated in the morning by the island doctor before the couple left on the ferry together – only for further trouble to occur when Brickstock turned up at her home in Bowhouse Road, Grangemouth, later the same day, hammering on the door with his metal vacuum flask, demanding entry and refusing to leave when asked.

Police were called and Brickstock was arrested.

Brickstock, of Wallace Street, Grahamston admitted threatening and abusive behaviour, and domestic assault on October 26 last year.

Simon Hutchison, defending, said: “Mr Brickstock had been working on Colonsay. He had a really good job and had been sent there by his boss with various other employees in a works van.

“He had been working there for some time when his then partner suggested she wanted to come out for a break. He agreed she could come out for week.

“They have certainly had a tempestuous relationship over the years, as is evidenced by Mr Brickstock’s previous offending, but they’d had some time apart and there’d been no issues for some time.

“And this week was fine until the day Mr Brickstock came back from work slightly late and found she had already started drinking alcohol. They went down for dinner. She complained about something about the soup and stalked out of the dining room.

“Mr Brickstock was embarrassed and they had an argument about it out in the hall. This continued in the bedroom. He remembers leaving the bedroom to go and sleep in his van, but she went out to the van and wanted him to come back to the bedroom, which he did.

“Unfortunately, the argument exploded again.”

The defence solicitor said during the incident Brickstock lost the keys to the van, and had to return to the mainland on the ferry without it. His employer had to compensate the hotel “because of the upset caused”, and Brickstock was sacked.

Mr Hutchison added: “Mr Brickstock quite accepts his behaviour went quite beyond the pale.”

Imposing the 12-month jail term, Sheriff Derek Hamilton referred to a social background report and said Brickstock had “a significant record” for violence against women.

He told him: “You’ve got a history of domestic abuse and violence going back many, many years, stretching across a number of partners, not just the complainer in this case.

“I have seen photographs of the injuries she sustained, and they are quite extensive.

“You don’t seem to show any remorse, you try to minimise your behaviour, and you don’t show any understanding of the impact of your behaviour on others.”

The sheriff said he noted Brickstock’s lawyer had suggested he might therefore be “the perfect candidate” for the Scottish Government’s domestic violence reduction project, known as the Caledonian Project.

But he said: “I think you are in fact the perfect example of someone who has now run out of opportunities, and the only appropriate disposal in your case is one of custody.”