An occasional beggar from Fife has been jailed after carrying out a life-endangering assault on his former partner, forcing her to flee through a window.
Roy Ramsay was given a prison sentence at Dunfermline Sheriff Court after admitting the assault on the mother-of-three in Kincardine on January 15 2023.
Ramsay threw the woman against a bannister before wrapping his arm around her neck.
His victim begged for him to stop as she felt her eyes rolling back.
The woman was left soaked in blood with a black eye and marks on her neck.
She eventually fled through a bathroom window.
Despite appearing in court, Ramsay breached a contact ban to tell her he was “an absolute c***” and deserved everything he gets.
Booze-fuelled assault
Prosecutor Isma Mukhtar told the court the couple began drinking at 12.30pm and moved on to Wetherspoons in Alloa before, following an argument, the woman got a taxi home.
She was dropped off at 5.15pm, and found Ramsay already there.
He seized her by the neck with both hands and threw her against the bannister, causing her to hit her head and cut her ear.
He then wrapped his arm around the woman’s neck until she thought she was going to lose consciousness and felt her eyes rolling back.
She begged Ramsay to let go, shouting reminders about her children.
After getting free, the woman asked to go to the toilet and escaped out the window.
She ran to a cousin’s house and when police attended she was still soaked in blood.
She had a black eye, bruising around her lips, red marks on her throat and blood coming from her ear and soaked into her hair.
She was taken to Victoria Hospital.
Ramsay was traced the following evening at his grandfather’s farm near Kincardine.
‘I deserve everything I get’
After appearing in court in private, Ramsay was released with strict orders not to contact the woman.
However, he began texting her on the morning of January 22 last year.
He sent her: “I’m so sorry. You are my world. I miss you so much. I can’t take this. Are you ok?”
The woman replied: “Am I ok? My face is a mess, you nearly f***ing killed me. You are one hated c***. Do not ever contact me again.”
Ramsay told her: “Sorry, didn’t mean that at all. I know I’m an absolute c***, I deserve everything I get.”
After he tried to call her, police were contacted and Ramsay was arrested again.
High risk of re-offending
Ramsay, 34, of Henryson Road in Dunfermline pled guilty to assault to injury and danger of life and breaching bail.
His solicitor Stephen Morrison said: “His messages express some degree of regret.
“He doesn’t have a particularly great recollection of the incident and still can’t believe that he has behaved in this way – he fully accepts that he has.
“This is his first conviction of a domestically-aggravated nature.
“Whatever is contained within the previous convictions, nothing comes close to the level we’re dealing with today.
“His mental health has not been particularly good, he has relapsed into heroin misuse, he was periodically begging on the streets.
“He’s now back in receipt of benefits, he’s engaging with addiction services, he is being investigated for PTSD, he’s no longer on the streets begging.
“Clearly as we stand here, the risk of re-offending is high.
“Mr Ramsay requires robust social work support.
“He realises that the relationship is at an end.”
Jail ‘unavoidable’
Ramsay, who was on bail at the time of the assault and has been on bail since, was jailed for two years.
Sheriff Susan Duff also made a three-year non-harassment order.
She said: “You have pled guilty to a very serious assault that was to injury and danger of the complainer’s life.
“She thought, as she said in her texts, that she was a goner.
“A custodial sentence is unavoidable.”
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