Man Who Battered Girlfriend's Dad Jailed

A Dundee man who attacked his girlfriend's father when he came to her rescue after he’d reduced her to tears has been jailed for 31 months.

Serial thug John Monteath had told on-off girlfriend Rachel Sommerville that he was going to the pub with a friend - but that she wasn't invited.

The ensuring row reduced her to tears and prompted the 20-year-old to call dad Brian Sommerville, 48, and ask him to pick her up.

After he got his daughter into the car they drove past Monteath and asked him what was going on.

Fiscal depute Eilidh Robertson told Dundee Sheriff Court that Monteath had a long list of previous convictions - including assault to severe injury and permanent disfigurement, assault to severe injury and possessing a knife.

At the time of the offence on February 20 this year he was on bail and had recently been released from jail for an assault conviction.

Miss Robertson added that Mr Sommerville then parked up in Provost Road, in the shadows of Dundee FC's Dens Park.

She said: "He got out of the car and the accused ran towards him, asking him for a 'square go'.

"Monteath's friend swung for Mr Sommerville and missed.

"He then began to struggle with Mr Sommerville, during which both he and the accused knocked Mr Sommerville against his parked car, causing him to fall to the ground.

"The accused then began to kick Mr Sommerville repeatedly on the head whilst he was on the ground, and stamped on his head once whilst he was on the ground.

"Miss Sommerville tried to pull the accused off her father.

"He grabbed her by the arms and pushed her onto the road, away from him.

"Mr Sommerville began to bleed and used a jumper he found on the ground to mop his eye.

"The incident was witnessed by an off duty police officer from her home address, who telephoned the police.

"The accused was picked up by a taxi nearby.

"The driver describes the accused shouting on the telephone to someone called Rachel, stating 'why did you get your dad involved?', 'he just got done', 'who do you think the Sommervilles are?' and 'stamped on your dad's head'."

The court heard Mr Sommerville was left with a scar above his eyebrow and needed stitches for the injury.

Monteath, 23, a prisoner at HMP Perth, pleaded guilty on indictment to two charges of assault.

Doug McConnell, defending, said: "I'm not going to argue that custody is not inevitable.

"He's fully aware of that."

Sheriff Alistair Carmichael jailed Monteath for a total of 31 months - returning him to custody for an unexpired 338 day portion of an earlier jail term and imposing a 20 month term to be served consecutively to that term.

He said: "In view of your record of previous convictions and the nature of this offence a custodial sentence is the only option."