SENTENCING STATEMENTS

On sentencing  Sheriff Frazer made the following remarks in court:

"Michael Kiernan, you have been convicted following trial of a contravention of section 1 of the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 whilst subject to two separate bail orders imposed on you in February and March 2024.

You are further convicted of three contraventions of section 38(1) of the Criminal Justice & Licensing (Scotland) Act 2010 in relation to three separate matters on which I will say more later.

As far as the main offence on the indictment is concerned you have been convicted of what can only be described as sustained domestic abuse and violence towards your estranged partner, committed over a period of approximately 2 ½ years. 

The various parts of the libel of the charge for which you were convicted are extremely unpleasant and deeply concerning.

Amongst other matters not only were you frequently verbally abusive and aggressive towards her; on numerous occasions, you;

• Locked her out of the house you shared causing her, on occasions, to sleep outside or in the garden shed;
• Repeatedly locked her in the house with no means of leaving;
• Controlled her sleeping patterns by forcing her to remain awake throughout the course of the night;
• Assaulted her by forcing your fingers into her throat to her injury;
• Assaulted her by seizing by her hair and dragging and kicking her when she was pregnant;
• Stripped her naked and placed her in a shower where you scrubbed her face and body, hosed her with cold water whilst describing her as “disgusting” and repeatedly struck her face and head with a towel to her injury;
• On one occasion attempted to forcibly remove her engagement ring from her finger;
• On other occasion seized hold of her, pushed her onto a bed where you pinned her down and then placed your hands over her mouth;
• On another occasion assaulted her by pulling her from a chair and smashing it to pieces

In all of these incidents you shouted at her, swore at her and used what can only be described as the utmost cruel and demeaning language in order to cause her further distress and humiliation.

In addition, despite being placed on bail in relation to these matters, you repeatedly breached conditions of your bail by attempting to contact her.

You pleaded not guilty to these charges, as a result of which your ex-partner, required to give evidence over a period of two days. It was obvious during her evidence that she was upset and deeply distressed by what had occurred to her as result of your behaviour.

Her parents were also in court throughout the duration of the trial and required to listen to what was said by their daughter and the other witnesses who gave evidence. This painted a picture of a deeply unhappy woman who was too frightened to go to the police because of what she thought you might to do to her.

You chose to give evidence and, throughout, you maintained that none of these things as described had occurred and that, in essence, your ex-partner had lied and gave evidence against you for purely malicious reasons.

In my, view quite properly, the jury rejected your evidence and accepted that of your ex-partner and the other witnesses, including a neighbour who ultimately alerted the police to the situation, as well as the medical and police evidence which highlighted the ongoing upset, distress and psychological harm your ex-partner has experienced.

In addition to this, in relation to charge 2, on two occasions in September 2023 you were verbally abusive and aggressive towards the nurse practitioner at the local GP surgery when she, quite rightly, refused to allow you to attend a consultation she had arranged with your ex-partner.

That in itself is bad enough but in April 24 and again in July 2024 you managed to somehow hack the personal Facebook accounts of two police officers who at the time were in the process of either investigating your offending or had had dealings with you in the past.

Dealing with charge 3 the female officer concerned was the reporting officer involved in charges 1 and 2 and who had initially arrested and interviewed you on 13 February 2024. Following your release on bail between 21 and 24 April 2024 you sent her a series of grossly offensive and deeply concerning messages of a threatening nature. In addition to calling her “corrupt scum” you further made references to her children describing them in the most derogatory terms and stating, and I quote; they were “the next wee Wayne Cousins”.

In relation to charge 4 on various occasions between 21 April 2024 and 7 July 2024 you messaged the male police officer who had had earlier dealings with you.  In those messages you named his wife and, amongst other things, accused him of assaulting her. Once again, you did so using what can only be described as deeply offensive and vile language.

Both officers spoke of the traumatising effect this had upon them given the invasion of their privacy and that of their families. They were understandably extremely concerned that you had obtained information on them and then made reference to members of their families you  posted on their Facebook pages which others were then able to see.

That one of your posts featured on a page which celebrated the birth of one of the officers’ children is nothing short of deplorable.

Your behaviour in each of these charges demonstrates in no uncertain terms the type of individual you are – manipulative, misogynistic and, as stated in the criminal justice report, a high risk of further analogous offending.

I have listened carefully to what has been said by your agent in mitigation. Whilst he is right to draw attention to your limited record and skills as a trained chef in no way does that outweigh the very serious aggravating factors I have already referred to in relation to the charges themselves.

The social enquiry report is somewhat limited in terms of some the information that it provides but none the less throughout it you have continued to maintain your innocence in relation to charge 1 whilst at the same time giving highly implausible explanations for your conduct in relation to the other three charges.

Given all of this and notwithstanding your limited record, these charges are of the most serious kind, involving as they do a pattern of behaviour over a sustained period and featuring a lengthy domestic abuse charge containing significant elements of aggression, coercion and violence towards a very vulnerable and isolated complainer.

That you continue to deny any wrongdoing and show no remorse or insight into your behaviour simply compounds matters.

I have therefore concluded that this behaviour can only be addressed by a custodial sentence particularly given the potential for such offending being repeated.

In relation to charge 1 the sentence will be one of 3 years imprisonment from today’s date. In relation to charge 2 the sentence will be one of 2 months imprisonment to run concurrently with charge 1.

In relation to charges 3 and 4, you attempted to frighten and intimidate police officers responsible for investigating your offending at a point when you had already been arrested and charged in relation to charges 1 and 2.

Such behaviour towards police officers acting in the execution of their duty cannot, under any circumstance, ever be tolerated.

Accordingly, you will be sentenced to 12 months imprisonment in relation to each of these charge which will run concurrently with one another but consecutively to charge 1 given these offences were committed by you after you had been arrested, charged and placed on bail.

The total sentence is therefore one of 4 years imprisonment from today’s date.

In addition, having regard to theses offences and the Crown’s further submission, a life-long non-harassment order in favour shall be made favour of the complainer which will do as it says; to protect her from you for life.