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Domestic abuser held pool cue over his head at Oscars Bar in Dingwall while shouting abuse





Oscars Bar. Picture: Google Maps
Oscars Bar. Picture: Google Maps

Three different women complained to police about the abuse they suffered from a 47-year-old Inverness man over 19-year period, a sheriff was told.

Martin Shaw, of Fairfield Road, Inverness appeared for sentencing at Inverness Sheriff Court after admitting causing fear and alarm to one woman between January 2001 and January 2004, a course of domestic abuse towards a second from June 2019 to June 2021 and threatening behaviour towards the daughter of that partner in Oscars Bar in Dingwall in September 2020.

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Fiscal depute Victoria Silver told Sheriff Gary Aitken that the first complainer was in a casual relationship with Shaw and he would get angry with her repeatedly, clench his fists and on one occasion she had to pick up a rolling pin to protect herself because of his behaviour.

Ms Silver said she left him because he had relationships with other women but then received threatening messages from him for a short time afterwards.

The court heard Shaw met the second woman in 2019 and moved in to her home in Cromartie Drive, Strathpeffer.

"She began to notice that he had issues with alcohol,” Ms Silver said. “She would cook him breakfast but on one occasion he complained about it and refused to eat it. He would shout and swear at her and would regularly become angry with her after drinking all day.

"Towards the end of the relationship, she would be refused entry to her own address."

The third complainer was a daughter of that woman who had just been released from hospital after an operation and was still in pain, the sheriff heard.

When she saw Shaw in Oscars Bar she did not want to engage with him, Ms Silver said, and he began shouting abuse at her and held a pool cue over his head.

Defending, Natalie Paterson asked the sheriff to call for an assessment for the Caledonia Men's Programme for domestic abusers, adding: "He recognises that alcohol is a significant factor in his behaviour."

The sheriff deferred sentence until March 13 for the report and Shaw's bail was continued.


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