Perth prisoner attacked three women in Inverness and Alness
A drug addict who had several partners over an 11-year period assaulted two of them when they were pregnant and threatened to inject a third woman with heroin, Inverness Sheriff Court heard.
Sheriff Eilidh Macdonald heard harrowing details of how 31-year-old Greg Stewart, a prisoner on remand at Perth but who has connections with Alness and Inverness, abused the trio by assaulting them, threatening them, and calling them derogatory names in fits of temper.
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Stewart pleaded guilty at Inverness Sheriff Court by video link to four charges - two of assault, one of threatening behaviour and one of a campaign of domestic abuse which included violence.
The sheriff agreed to defence solicitor Rory Gowans’ request for a background report on his client, who, he said, expected a jail sentence.
He explained his client had been addicted to heroin since he was 16 years old and had ADHD and autism, Sheriff Macdonald deferred sentence until February 25 for the report to be prepared which, she said, should include a risk assessment on Stewart.
She commented: "His behaviour is stark. A custodial sentence is highly likely."
Fiscal depute Pauline Gair told the court that Stewart's first victim had been in a relationship with him between an unknown date in 2011 and November 2013. She moved in with him to a property in Braeface Park, Alness around January 2013 on finding out she was pregnant to him.
Mrs Gair said: "She describes the accused as controlling and angry all the time. On multiple occasions he would grab her by the wrists and squeeze them tight, while screaming in her face.
"The behaviour caused her concern about her unborn child. He would call her useless and worthless and she felt very isolated during her pregnancy. The effects of this have been life-changing."
Mrs Gair described one occasion in August or September 2013 where the woman sought refuge in a bathroom but he pushed the door so hard it hit her on the left side of her stomach and she was left with bruising. The child was born in October 20213 and the relationship ended a month later.
The second victim moved in with him to properties in Inverness and Ardersier during their relationship which lasted from May 2016 to January 2021 and she described it as "physically and emotionally abusive throughout". He would call her derogatory and offensive names and threatened to blow up her house and make it look like a gas leak.
Stewart would push her and punch her and after she found out she was pregnant in May 2018, they argued and she sought refuge in the bathroom where he pushed his way in.
"He then put his hands around her throat and said 'you ain't going to be no mother to my child'. She was terrified and screaming at him to let her go," Mrs Gair went on.
The couple moved to another property in Inverness's St Valery Avenue, in January 2019 - a month before their daughter was born. In the garden, he grabbed her mobile phone as she was messaging a friend and smashed it on the ground, Mrs Gair added.
The relationship ended in January 2021.
The court heard that in September 2021, Stewart started another relationship and they shared a property in Glendoe Terrace, Inverness. He would leave her to pay all the bills, call her names and constantly ask her for money for drugs.
The woman was forced to administer heroin into his arm but when she refused, he pinned her to the bed, took the syringe of heroin and said: 'I'll inject you with this and then you'll see how it feels.'
Mrs Gair said: "She managed to push him off with her feet. That relationship ended at the beginning of November 2022."
