A MAN shouted a barrage of abuse at his ex-girlfriend and demanded she hand over their baby daughter as she walked along a Drumry street.

Brian Dallas appeared at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on February 14 for sentencing, having pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to putting his ex in a state of fear or alarm by following her along Vanguard Street last year.

Fiscal depute Sarah Healing explained the situation came to a head after 23-year-old Dallas got in touch with his former partner, whom he had split with three weeks earlier, to set up a visitation with his daughter. 

When she refused because she’d already made plans with the child that day, he showed up on her mother’s street where he became aggressive. 

Ms Healing told the court: “He was aggressive and demanded that she hand [their daughter] over to him, she refused and continued walking.

“He repeated this demand several times and started shouting and swearing and aggressively demand she return a television set.

“She asked him to come back another time as she was late. He then called her a ‘fat cow’, ‘a s***’ and ‘a t***’.”

When the victim arrived at her mother’s home, a neighbour intervened and told Dallas to leave her alone.

Dallas became involved in an argument with the neighbour, giving the victim a chance to enter her mother’s home and to lock the door before contacting police.

Officers who attended the property described Dallas’s ex as “visibly shaken and distressed” upon their arrival.

At the request of the victim, Ms Healing asked for a non-harassment order banning Dallas from approaching or contacting the victim except through an agreed third party to arrange visitation with the child.

Dallas’s solicitor told the court his client would not be opposed to such an order and posed “no threat” to the victim. 

He said: “He certainly accepts full responsibility. The complainer made it very difficult for him to see the child and that’s a culmination of this. 

“He’s accompanied by his mother today. She’s not pleased with [his behaviour] and neither is he. 

“His schedule of previous offending is fairly minimal and not domestic. He’s working full time, he’s been working pretty much since he left schoolm in a fairly well-paying job it has to be said.

“He pays the complainer £290 a month.”

Sheriff William Gallacher told Dallas: “This was an unpleasant, unacceptable situation. 

“If you want to have a relationship with your child there are ways that can be done, not by treating her mother this way.”

Sheriff Gallacher granted the Crown’s request for a non-harassment order and Dallas, of Kirkwall Avenue, Blantyre, was ordered to pay a £1,000 fine.