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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Gordon Currie

Scots man savagely attacked girlfriend after she dropped phone down toilet

A man who carried out a savage attack on his girlfriend because she dropped his phone down a toilet has been ordered to pay her £2,000 compensation.

Raging Paul Graham broke Ann Berry's cheekbone by punching her in face - before trying to ice the injury with a packet of frozen sausages.

A trial heard how he grabbed Ms Berry by the hair, pulled her to the floor and punched her in the face after they had a game of darts.

Ms Berry told a jury she thought she was going to die as she curled up on the floor of her Broughty Ferry flat.

The 51-year-old said that Graham then told her: "Phone the police and get me charged."

Graham, 49, of Court Street, Dundee, had denied assaulting Ms Berry to her severe injury and impairment.

However, after a two-day trial at Perth Sheriff Court, the jury found him guilty under provocation.

Sheriff Gillian Wade told Graham: "This was clearly very serious. There has to be an element or restorative justice to take into account what you have done."

As well as the compensation order, she told Graham to carry out 200 hours unpaid work and placed him under social work supervision for a year. He was also banned from having any contact with Ms Berry for two years.

Giving her evidence behind screens, Ms Berry said she had been in a relationship with Graham for six years.

She told the trial she was watching football at home when Graham returned from the pub on 19 January 2020.

The couple had a drink together and played a game of darts in the hallway, but tensions flared when Graham mentioned a barmaid he used to go out with.

"He was texting," she said. "I asked him if he was still messaging her."

Fiscal Depute Michael Sweeney asked Ms Berry: "How did that go down?"

She replied: "He could do what he wants. That was his words, more or less. I was shouting at him. I was angry and hurt. I kept repeating 'get out of my house.'

"He was just lying on the bed, laughing."

Ms Berry said she picked up Graham's mobile phone from a bedside cabinet.

"I headed out of the room. I said I would give him back the phone at the front door, once he had left the flat. He's very protective of his phone, he doesn't let anyone touch it.

"He jumped up and ran towards me. In my head I thought if I dropped the phone down the toilet, it would give me a chance to escape while he was trying to get his phone back."

Graham followed her to the bathroom shouting: "Give me back my phone."

Ms Berry said: "He grabbed me by the hair and pulled me to the floor, out of the bathroom. I was just trying to curl up into a ball in the hallway."

Ms Berry said she was punched in the face as she tried to get back on her feet.

"I ended up back in the bathroom and my head bounced off the floor," she said. "I just remember thinking: ‘Okay, well, that's it. I was away to die'."

Ms Berry said Graham went to the kitchen and came back with a pack of frozen sausages for Ms Berry to hold against her face.

"Paul was telling me to phone the police. He said: 'Phone the police and get me charged'."

Ms Berry said she did not call police that night but instead, curled up on the floor of the kitchen and cried. The jury heard Ms Berry was later treated at Ninewells Hospital for a fracture to her right cheek bone.

Solicitor Billy Somerville, defending, said: "It does seem that he accepts his behaviour was totally and utterly inapproriate. Despite it being a single punch, the injuries were quite significant."

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