PREGNANT WOMAN TELLS OF EX-SOLDIER’S VIOLENCE
Gordon Jack repeatedly attacked Gemma Nattrass, the mother of his little girl, at their Renfrewshire home.Nattrass fought back tears as she told the jury how Jack subjected her to emotional and physical abuse between July 1, 2011, and September 3 last year.
She said his beatings left her arms, body, and face covered in bruises, which she had to use make-up to hide.
Reliving one shocking attack, which took place while she was four or five months pregnant with daughter Casey, she told the jury how Jack burst her head open — then berated her for getting blood on the carpet.
She explained: “He picked up this big wooden thing, it was like a coaster, that was next to him.
He threw it at me and it hit me above the eye, it burst my eye open.
It was bleeding.
Gordon was shouting and swearing at me, telling me to not get blood on the carpet.” The nursery nurse said she was too scared to go to the hospital in case they started asking questions about how she came by the injury, so she said she treated it herself, making stitches for the wound out of plasters.
And she said she has been left with a scar because of the injury, just above her right eye.
She told the jury that, when colleagues at work asked her what had happened, she told them she had left a kitchen cupboard open and hit her eye on the door.
The young mum also told the jury of a host of other times 27-year-old Jack attacked her throughout their relationship.
The mum, who is from Darlington, said she had moved to Renfrewshire to be with Jack and did not know anyone other than his mum and her work colleagues.
She told the court that he was controlling and always wanted to know where she was, phoning her if he thought she was taking too long to return home from work.
On various occasions between July 2011 and August last year, Jack berated Nattrass, shouting at her, swearing and acting aggressively, placing her in a state of fear and alarm.
And, between September 1, 2011, and August 31, 2013, he slapped Gemma and rained punches on her face, head, and body.
In a final assault, on September 3, 2013, Jack attacked Nattrass by punching and kicking her repeatedly on the head and body, leaving her injured.
Jack denied attacking his ex, telling the court she was making it up.
He said that he and Gemma had a good life together and were never short of money—until she fell pregnant with Casey.
Due to the amount of things they had to buy for Casey’s arrival, such as clothes, a pram, furniture, and a car seat, Jack said they had to tighten their purse strings.
Part of their cutting back meant he took the decision to sell Gemma’s BMW Z4 as they could survive with just his Lexus — which he described as “a normal family car” — and a work van he had, for transport.
He said: “Gemma wasn’t happy.
She wanted everything concentrated on her—money and everything else.
When it was concentrated towards her daughter, she wasn’t impressed about it.
She didn’t get paid well for being a nursery nurse, so I’d give her whatever she needed.
The money came from me.” He said Gemma was angered by the lack of money and gifts she received from him after Casey was born and had fabricated the charges against him as a punishment.
But the jury was not persuaded by his account and convicted him of three charges spanning countless assaults and foul-mouthed tirades.
Sheriff Seith Ireland called for reports and deferred sentence on Jack until next month.
As he did so, he told Jack—who was said to have suffered a “substantial injury” while in the army—that he had been convicted of “a serious course of conduct.” The sheriff suggested social workers who will assess Jack ahead of sentencing contact the charity Combat Stress, which helps former military personnel “who may experience difficulty adjusting to civilian life.” Jack will learn his fate on December 10.
