Paisley thug jailed for strangling his pregnant partner

Daniel McCrudden, originally from Paisley, admitted seizing the woman by the hair and repeatedly punching her on the head before pulling her to the ground.

The thug, branded a danger to the public by a sheriff, then grabbed her by the throat restricting her breathing in a terrifying episode of domestic abuse.

A court was told the woman was injured in the vicious attack at an address in West Lothian on May 26, 2023.

McCrudden, 23, now in Low Moss Prison, East Dunbartonshire, was originally charged on indictment with attacking to the danger of life, but the Crown accepted his guilty plea to a lesser charge of assault to injury.

The accused also admitted assaulting Thomas Crosby during the same incident by repeatedly punching him on the body.

McCrudden, who was subject to a total of seven bail orders from courts in Paisley and Falkirk at the time of the offences further admitted three counts of breaching home curfews by being in the company of his former partner on one occasion and twice failing to stay inside his bail address in Armadale.

He also appeared for sentence for breaching court bail orders by repeatedly contacting his partner from Addiewell and Low Moss prisons between September 3 and October 1 last year.

However, his not guilty plea to attempting to pervert the course of justice by instructing her not to tell social workers about him subjecting her to domestic abuse was accepted by the Crown.

Passing sentence, Sheriff Peter Hammond told McCrudden: “Clearly custodial sentences have done nothing to deter you from a lifetime of offending.

“There are alternatives to custody but I’m satisfied that you are a persistent violent offender who presents a danger to the public and to domestic partners.”

He went on: “As your solicitor has told me, adversity in your life has undoubtedly contributed to where you are today.”

The sheriff said he took into account McCrudden’s adverse life experiences, the stage at which he had pled guilty and the length of time he had spent in custody on remand.

He concluded: “The only appropriate disposal is a custodial one.”

He backdated the prison sentence to 29 June last year when McCrudden was remanded in custody and imposed a non-harassment order banning him from approaching or contacting the woman in any way for three years.

McCrudden smirked in the dock as sentence was being pronounced.

He was caged for 16 months in 2019 when he was aged just 16 for knifing a man in the neck.

Paisley Sheriff Court was told at the time that he taunted his victim Thomas Riach by saying he was lucky the switchblade he used hadn’t locked and plunged deeper into his neck.

He was sentenced at the same time for attacking cops who had taken him to hospital, telling them he hoped their daughters got cancer and threatening to find out where their families lived.

He was described at the time as “a Jekyll and Hyde character” who tended to lose all control after consuming drink and drugs in his attempts to cope with the trauma of being placed in care as a child.

McCrudden was sentenced to a further 15 months detention in 2021 after he was convicted of scarring Lewis Beaton for life by smashing a bottle onto the back of his head after chasing him down the street in Paisley.