FOCHABERS MAN AVOIDS PRISON AFTER ASSAULTING THREE FORMER PARTNERS
A man from Fochabers, John Harrold, who assaulted three of his former partners on different occasions between 1998 and 2010, has avoided imprisonment.At Elgin Sheriff Court, the 57-year-old was sentenced to 243 hours of unpaid work and placed under supervision for 18 months after pleading guilty to four charges of assault.
The incidents included him seizing the collar and pushing his then-wife Carmen Buchan or Harrold against a wall in Fochabers High Street during 1998, hitting his subsequent partner Glenda McKie on the head causing her to fall, then grabbing her arms and pulling her to her feet, and lifting a park bench she was sitting on, dropping it on her legs.
Further assaults involved repeatedly pushing another partner, Amanda Grant, at a house in Garmouth in 2010.
During the court hearing, defense solicitor Robert Cruickshank stated that "Mr Harrold has moved on from this offending and it would be my submission that the victims, who are all former partners of his, have also moved on." The court ordered that he inform his social worker if he enters a new relationship within the next 18 months.
