Abuser dubbed sleeping partner ‘Rapunzel’ and chopped off her hair during year of abuse in Dundee

A controlling abuser who cut off his partner’s ponytail and struck her legs with broken glass during a year of torment has been jailed.

Gary Finnie, 38, called the woman ‘Rapunzel’ and cut her hair while she slept.

The woman, who had “quite long hair”, woke to find “most of her hair was gone”.

Finnie cut it while she was asleep and his terrorised partner had to make up a story to her family about wanting a new look because she did not want them to know what the brute had done.

On another occasion he got drunk, smashed a mirror over his head and began slashing her with a shard.

Finnie was locked up after he admitted terrorising the woman throughout 2021 at addresses in Dundee.

The city’s sheriff court was told how Finnie would prevent the woman from seeing her friends and manually deleted numbers from her mobile phone to prevent them making contact.

Filmed pulling victim back into flat

One day prior to Halloween, drink-and-cocaine-fuelled Finnie became abusive towards the woman, who was pregnant at the time.

He began breaking items in the flat before smashing the mirror over his head, picking up a piece of broken glass and striking the woman “a number of times”.

He had already slashed and stabbed himself in the stomach.

Neighbours contacted the police after becoming concerned about the noise.

Officers discovered smashed glass, overturned furniture and items strewn across the floor.

The woman had injuries to her wrist and leg but refused to provide a statement.

Ring doorbell footage from a neighbour showed the victim trying to leave the flat before being forcefully pulled back in by Finnie.

The court was told Finnie was released from police custody and continued to “act in the same manner” towards the woman before being arrested at the end of December 2021.

Sentencing

Previous offender Finnie, a prisoner at HMP Perth, pled guilty to engaging in an abusive course of conduct towards the woman between January 1 and December 31 2021.

Solicitor Gary Foulis said: “He has no previous convictions of a domestic nature.

“He himself was having trouble with mental health and drug addiction issues at the time.

“There was a significant gap in offending between 2010 and 2017 when he was completely clean and in full-time employment.”

Sheriff Paul Brown ordered Finnie to serve 26 months in custody and imposed a 12-month supervised release order.

He was also made subject to a non-harassment order designed to keep him from approaching or contacting the woman for the next three years.

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