July 2023

Aberdeen Woman banned from approaching young girl

A Bucksburn woman had been ordered to stay away from a child after she placed the girl’s hand on a kitchen counter and stabbed between her fingers with a knife.

Rosemary Laing, 53, was found guilty after a trial at Aberdeen Sheriff Court of repeatedly assaulting the girl over a more than eight-year period.

The child was aged only five years old when the physical abuse began.

A number of the assaults took place at an address in Bucksburn, during a car journey and at a church in the city.

Laing was also convicted at trial of carrying out abusive behaviour towards her former partner which included attempting to push him down a flight of stairs.

During the trial, jurors heard how Laing repeatedly assaulted the girl by striking her on the body with a coat hanger to her injury.

It was also stated that, on other occasions, she repeatedly held the girl’s hand down on a kitchen counter and struck a knife between her fingers onto the countertop.

Laing carried out the assault while uttering threats of violence, the court heard.

The woman also physically assaulted the child on a number of occasions by pushing her body hard and, in one instance, shoved her against a wall and struck her to the head and body.

Laing also threw a remote control at the girl, grabbed her around the neck and shoved her against a fridge, scratched her on the body and threw the contents of a glass at her whilst shouting and swearing.

A former partner of Laing also suffered physical abuse when she grabbed him around the neck and tightened her grip and attempted to push him down a set of stairs

She would also repeatedly throw household items at him – on one occasion hurling a telephone at him which struck him on the head, causing injury

Following the trial, a jury found Laing guilty of one charge of repeated attacks on a child and a second charge of engaging in a course of behaviour that was abusive towards her former partner

As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Wallace made Laing subject to a payback order for12 months and ordered her to carry out 160 hours of unpaid work.

He also put a non-harassment order in place, meaning Laing of Market Street, Bucksburn,acnnot approach the girl for 10 months and her partnefr for two years