Glasgow man waterboarded partner while she watched Friends

A man who waterboarded his partner while she watched an episode of Friends has been jailed for four years.

Scott O’Sullivan, 40, made the woman suffer at his hands during a six-year campaign of domestic terror.

O’Sullivan, of Glasgow’s Drumchapel, kept tabs on his partner and attacked her on a number of occasions.

This included slamming her face into a mirror and sticking a knife into her hand.

The victim told a jury that O’Sullivan also tried to drown her by putting a towel over her face and pouring water on it while watching American sitcom Friends while on the couch.

She said that she struggled to breathe and felt like she was going to pass out.

“He had an argument with me,” the victim told the court.

“He came up behind me with a wet towel and put it on my face from behind then pulled my head back.

“He then started pouring a bottle of water over my face trying to drown me… I couldn’t catch my breath, I thought I was ready for passing out.”

She ended the relationship but found out he started a romance with her teenage half-sister, whom he also tormented over the course of two years, including while she was pregnant.

O’Sullivan was found guilty at Glasgow Sheriff Court of assaulting his first victim to her severe injury and permanent disfigurement.

The charge spans between 2004 and 2010 at properties in the city’s Summerston, Anniesland and Maryhill.

He was also convicted of assaulting the second victim at a property in Summerston between August 2012 and May 2014.

Sheriff Patrick Hughes imposed a five-year extended sentence where O’Sullivan will be put under supervision upon his release from prison.

He said: “Both charges you were convicted of are of extreme and serious nature… a troubling aspect is asphyxiation which is viewed serious by the courts.

“On the other charge the harm is less serious but there has been a degrading and humiliating element which has aggravated it.

“Having regard to all factors, there is no alternative to custody.

“Having regard to the background report which is deeply troubling – among the most troubling I have read in a case such as this – the normal period of licence on release is insufficient.”

A ten-year non-harassment order which prevents O’Sullivan’s contact with the women was also granted at the sentencing.