'Domestic assaults' trial told Greenock man 'punched pregnant partner'

Colin McIver, 52, repeatedly choked the complainer, dragged her by the hair inside their home and launched a vacuum cleaner at a teenage girl at addresses in Greenock and Port Glasgow between May 1999 and September 2000, it is alleged.

The woman, who gave evidence from behind screens at the sheriff court, told a jury that she felt ‘embarrassed and humiliated’ after one reported incident when McIver allegedly threw a bottle of juice at her in front of friends.

She said: “I was asked to pick up a bottle of Fanta from Tesco but I couldn’t find it and I picked up a bottle of Tesco’s own juice.

“He said it wasn’t good enough and threw it at me. It hit me on the chest.

“I felt a bit winded.”

The witness, who entered into a relationship with McIver around the turn of the century, was asked about an alleged incident in August 1999 when she was heavily pregnant.

She said that McIver started an argument with her which ‘got really heated’, prompting her to dial 999.

She said: “While I was on the phone he grabbed it, pulled the wire out the box in the living room and I wasn’t able to get through.

“The argument went on for quite a while.

“I managed to get the phone reconnected and the police phoned back to make sure I was safe and they said that officers were already on their way.

“That’s when Mr McIver became violent.”

Sheriff Sheena Fraser (Image: George Munro)

According to the witness, McIver grabbed her by the hair and punched her several times on the stomach before taking hold of her throat.

The complainer described a further alleged incident which was said to have begun with the couple ‘shouting and bawling’ at each other and ended with the accused grabbing the woman by the hair, pulling her down onto the floor then dragging her along laminate flooring.

The witness claimed McIver was ‘clever enough not to make marks’, and referred to another argument when he allegedly ‘flew off the handle’, pinned her against a wall and squeezed her throat ‘just enough to leave a red mark but not enough to leave a bruise’.

On another occasion, the witness said she felt ‘frightened’ and ran out of the house with one of her children before McIver launched a chair belonging to the youngster from a veranda, scattering pieces of broken wood around the fleeing pair.

She told the court: “I just ran because I wasn’t sure what was happening next.”

McIver, of Mill Street, is also charged with engaging in an abusive course of conduct spanning seven months between 2019 and 2020 towards a woman who is now deceased.

Greenock Sheriff Court (Image: NQ)

He denies the alleged offences through instructing solicitor Gerry Keenan and defence advocate Iain Smith.

Cross-examining the first witness, Mr Smith claimed the woman was mistaken over the dates of the alleged assaults.

The witness said: “It’s 25 years [ago], trying to remember everything is very difficult.”

She claimed that she had reported the alleged stomach-punching incident to police at the time, before an official statement was taken 20 years later in April 2020.

“I can’t always be 100 per cent specific but I know that on more than one occasion Mr McIver has grabbed me by the throat”, she said, “It did happen quite regularly.”

The court was shown medical records revealing that the reason for her admittance to Inverclyde Royal Hospital on the day of the alleged assault was ‘labour with unstable lie’, relating to her unborn child.

She told the court that the alleged attack ‘might have happened before then’, repeating that it was 25 years ago.

The defence advocate asked: “Is it the case that you don’t know?”

The woman replied: “Oh, I definitely know, but I can’t be specific about the dates and times 25 years ago.

“He terrorised me.”

The court was later shown further medical records detailing a separate hospital admittance in May 1999 relating to a ‘domestic disturbance’ when she was allegedly ‘punched on the lower abdomen’.

The trial, before Sheriff Sheena Fraser, continues.