Early morning assault broke man’s jaw

Sep 2 2011 by Court Reporter, Stirling Observer Friday

A FORMER soldier who broke a man’s jaw at an address in Bannockburn was jailed for 14 months on Wednesday.

Stirling Sheriff Court heard how the injured man actually had to clamber out of a window of the house in Randolph Crescent to flee from raging Jamie Reynolds following the assault.

To make matters worse, the court heard that Reynolds (22) even returned to his ex’s home later on and punched her on the head too.

Fiscal depute Catherine Knowles said that Reynolds and the woman had previously been in a relationship for around 16 months but had apparently split on April 18 this year.

Just days later, though, Reynolds was sending her texts asking her who she was with, described as “jealous” in nature rather than threatening.

The court heard that the woman had initially had friends over and that most of these had departed at around 11pm, leaving her and the other man watching a DVD.

But just two hours later, Reynolds turned up at the door. Believing it to be some of her friends from earlier returning, his ex opened the door.

Reynolds then walked in, saw the man sitting on the couch and immediately punched him causing the “severe injury”.

The fiscal depute said that the assault victim then actually “jumped out of a back window because he was scared for his safety”.

The court heard that Reynolds left the scene but returned later and carried out his second assault.

His ex was on the phone as she answered the door this time but Reynolds punched her anyway.

As regards injuries, the male victim had to go to Stirling Royal Infirmary and was examined before being further referred to the dental hospital. A further examination there found that he had sustained a broken jaw.

Reynold’s ex, meanwhile, had been examined by a police surgeon and was found to have bruising to her ear, said to be “consistent with blunt force trauma”.

Reynolds, from Bannockburn, but currently serving a prison sentence due to be completed later this month, later pleaded guilty to assaulting the male victim by punching him to the head to his severe injury.

He also admitted to another charge of assaulting his ex by punching her on the head to her injury.

Both assaults took place on April 23 this year.

His solicitor Ken Dalling told the court that Reynolds was a former soldier who had previously served in Afghanistan and had been “asked to deal with violent and stressful situations” in the course of his former Army career.

Mr Dalling said that a report prepared on Reynolds had indicated that alcohol had also played a part in “disinhibiting his behaviour” in the course of the two assaults.

Taking into account Reynolds record and the fact that he had carried out the assaults in the face of a recently imposed community payback order, Sheriff Wyllie Robertson said that a custodial sentence was the only appropriate one.

The sheriff then jailed Reynolds for 14 months in total for the two assaults.

The prison term was imposed consecutively to the sentence that Reynolds was already serving.