Jailed for attack on partner

220 days for "appalling" assault
A THURSO man has been jailed for what the sheriff described as an “appalling” attack on his partner.
During her ordeal which resulted in her assailant being jailed for 220 days, Michelle Ross was punched and kicked at their home, by Jamie Lee Lewis who also restricted her breathing by squeezing her throat.
The trouble, Wick Sheriff Court was told today, began in the early hours of April 6, after the pair returned to their then home in Shebster Court, Thurso, following a night out to celebrate a friend’s birthday An earlier 'niggle' escalated into a confrontation between the pair who had been drinking.
David Barclay, prosecuting, said that Lewis, 25, reacted, by pinning his partner to the floor and punched and kicked her repeatedly.
The fiscal said that he then then grabbed hold of Ms Ross by her throat and squeezed it, leaving her struggling to get her breath.
The incident “fizzled out” and the accused left the premises and coluntarily reported matters to the police, confessing – “I have hit her...I have really done it this time.”
Lewis, of 2 Riverside Terrace, Thurso, sent Ms Ross an apologetic text message breaching a bail order, imposed two days earlier, banning him from contacting her and expressing the hope they could work through their differences. The relationship had since been ended. Lewis admitted the assault and the bail breach.
Solicitor Fiona Macdonald said that the assault which Lewis “deeply regrets”, had been aggravated by some family difficulties. Lewis recognised he had problems and had since stopped drinking and had started to address drug abuse.
Describing the assault as “appalling” Sheriff Andrew Berry observed that Lewis’s record contained, among other convictions, an assault to severe injury using a screwdriver. The sheriff added that the accused had, in addition, “acted in complete defiance” of the bail condition and could consider himself fortunate not have been charged on indictment which had provision for a much longer sentence..