Wick man attacked ‘fiancée’ in Inverness after she asked when he was leaving his wife

A married Caithness man who was living two lives seriously assaulted one of his partners to whom he had proposed – because she wanted to know when he was leaving his wife.

Domestic abuser George Harper, of Bremner’s Walk, Wick, had been in a relationship with a woman in Inverness in 2022 and had asked her to marry him just two weeks after they first met – despite him still sharing a home with his spouse.

But he went on to hospitalise his “fiancee” after attacking her, and the 42-year-old admitted at Inverness Sheriff Court charges of threatening or abusive behaviour and assault in incidents committed in April and May of 2022.

Fiscal depute Pauline Gair told the court that Harper met his victim in June 2021.

She said: “He proposed within two weeks, despite having a wife with whom he still lived in Wick – he spent his time between the two women.”

The court heard that on April 29, 2022, Harper came to Inverness to spend time with the complainer and a neighbour saw him shouting and swearing and making threats in the garden.

Then, on April 30, the pair were socialising with others at the woman’s flat when Harper “took exception to what he saw as a flirtation between the complainer and another male who was present”.

“He struck her on the head causing her to, as she put it, ‘fly across the room’ and fall to the ground,” Mrs Gair told Sheriff Eilidh MacDonald.

In the early hours of May 1, a downstairs neighbour was woken by the sound of furniture being thrown about, with the couple “shouting and screaming” and said she heard the woman “screaming for help”.

During this incident, Harper said he didn’t love the woman and “told her to kill herself”.

The woman waited for Harper to be sleeping before seeking help from the neighbour. She was taken to hospital for treatment.

Harper’s solicitor Graham Mann conceded that his client had previous convictions for “offences of violence” but told the court that “there was no history with this particular complainer of anything untoward”.

He said: “They had a relationship for many months before this. He got himself into a situation he shouldn’t have. He was being confronted about if he was going to leave his wife, which he said he would, and this caused discord.

“They were both in a pretty poor state having taken drugs and alcohol.”

Sheriff MacDonald told Harper, who appeared by video link, there was no alternative to a prison sentence and jailed him for 16 months.

She also imposed a five-year non harassment order to protect his victim.

She added: “This was a serious period of offending – nasty and prolonged.”