Man who threw girl against vacuum cleaner and woman who struck boy on head avoid jail

A couple who assaulted two children in their care have been spared jail.

Cameron Cole, 48, and Phyllis Arthur, 36, were found guilty by a jury at the end of a lengthy trial in March of assaulting, threatening and striking the children – a boy when he was aged between four and 15 years old – and a girl aged four to 11.

Cole was also found guilty of acting aggressively towards a neighbour in Falkirk.

But a series of charges alleging that the couple had subjected the youngsters and three more children in their care to wilful neglect – including forcing them to live in squalid conditions, forcing some of them to eat excrement, and forcing them to live in a home with inadequate furnishings, rubbish and dog excrement on the floors, insufficient food and drink, and a “deceased family pet” in the freezer, as well as other claims about the couple’s behaviour – were all withdrawn by the prosecution at the trial.

Arthur, of Falkirk, and Cole, of Grangemouth, had denied all the charges.

Cole and Arthur were found guilty of assaulting the boy and threatening him with violence, with Arthur presenting a knife at him and Cole striking him on the head.

They were also found guilty of assaulting and threatening the girl, with Cole throwing her bodily against a vacuum cleaner.

The offences were said to have been committed between May 2011 and February 2022.

Defence solicitor Lynn Swan, for Arthur, and Mike Lowrie, for Cole, said both respected the verdicts of the jury.

Sheriff Wyllie Robertson told the accused: “This indictment originally contained eight charges, five of which contained allegations of wilful neglect.

“Each of these charges contained a number of separate allegations, and I remember in one counting some 30 different allegations that were made against you. These charges were withdrawn by the Crown, and properly so.

“In one notable allegation, after inquiry, I was informed that there appeared to have been no foundation or admissible evidence that would have justified putting it on the indictment.

“So what you face now is much reduced from that which you faced originally.

“It’s concerning that some of the allegations in the wilful neglect charges found their way onto the indictment.”

He sentenced Arthur to 300 hours of unpaid work and Cole to 150 hours. In addition, he placed Arthur on social work supervision for two years.

For legal reasons, none of the children involved can be identified.