Court puts trust in Helensburgh man over domestic row

A sheriff told David Cox he was trusting him to “behave appropriately” after the 37-year-old was convicted of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner towards his ex-wife.

Cox, of West Clyde Street, went uninvited to his former partner’s home in Muirend Road in Cardross on October 27 last year, where he uttered offensive remarks and shouted and swore at her.

At the time of the offence Cox was the subject of a bail order granted at Dumbarton Sheriff Court on July 25 last year.

A further charge alleging that Cox assaulted the same woman by lunging at her, seizing her and pulling her by the hair, and repeatedly punching and slapping her on the body to her injury, was dropped by the Crown.

Cox was back in the same court on Friday, when his solicitor, Stephen McGuire, said the case had proceeded to a trial “under very difficult circumstances”.

Mr McGuire added: “He recognises he was in the wrong.”

Addressing Cox directly, Sheriff William Gallacher said: “I found this an unpleasant case. I remember it in detail.

“I’m going to defer sentence for four months, for you to be of good behaviour, and I’m going to revoke your bail.

“That’s not my permission, much less my instruction, that you can engage with your family as you see fit.

“But I am trusting you, as an adult, to behave appropriately, and I expect you, as a grown-up, to be able to do that.”

Cox will return to court for sentencing on November 22.