A WOMAN was attacked viciously by her partner in Lochgelly.

The woman was dragged to the ground by the hair then pulled along the ground.

Her assailant was serial offender David Michie, who has been spared a jail sentence for the violence.

He claimed he had pulled the woman’s hair “by accident”.

Michie, 38, of Wilmington Drive, Glenrothes, appeared at Dunfermline Sheriff Court by video link from prison.

He admitted previously that on March 8 in Station Road, Lochgelly, he acted aggressively towards the householder and repeatedly shouted, swore, and made threats of violence towards him.

He also admitted that, in the same street, he assaulted his partner, seized her by the hair, pulled her to the ground by her hair and dragged her along the ground by the hair, all to her injury.

Depute fiscal Zahra Bhatti said that the woman was heard shouting: “Please stop, you’re going to kill me.”

Defence solicitor Aime Allan said the first incident occurred after he had been accused of house-breaking and “took umbrage at that”.

Of the assault on his partner, she said: “He accepts he went over the score. His position is he grabbed her hair by accident. He had tried to grab her but not by the hair. He feels terrible about his conduct.”

The solicitor said her client had been in a “revolving door” of custodial sentences and that he needed more help in coping when at liberty.

Over the video-link, Michie was heard saying: “It looks like jail.”

However, Sheriff Francis Gill, despite telling Michie, “You have an extremely bad record”, decided against a prison sentence.

Instead, he imposed a structured deferred sentence and Michie will return to court on August 31.