The distraught dad of a young woman who endured years of abuse at the hands of her partner has hit out at the “pathetic” sentence he received.
Ryan Walker (23) had earlier pled guilty to one charge under the Domestic Abuse Scotland Act 2018 and appeared at Livingston Sheriff Court on Friday for sentencing.
Walker, who has since moved to Eastgate, Choppington in Newcastle, received a community payback order and a supervision period of one year. A two-year non-harassment order was also put in place.
The victim’s dad told the Courier: “It’s not what we wanted. The abuse was horrific, which I viewed myself from the evidence that was given to the police.
“However as he pleaded guilty they gave him this sentence which we think was pathetic.
“She took videos and pictures and made a diary and said if ‘I die, it’s all there’. That part really gets to me.
“She said I’ve made a diary in case he kills me, so there was evidence.”
Walker began a relationship with his victim in 2018 and they were together for four years.
Looking back, her dad can now see tell-tale signs that his daughter was suffering.
He’s furious that he took Walker in and gave him a home, even buying him a car and getting him a job.
He told the family a “sob story”, saying his mum had thrown him out and his stay with the family turned from a couple of nights to months.
The man, who doesn’t want to be named, said: “My daughter asked me if he could stay for a couple of nights, I agreed and took him in. One day went to weeks, then months.
“His father stayed in Newcastle where he is now, his mother stayed up here so I took him under my wing.
“I gave him a roof over his head, warm food in his belly and we started looking for work for him.
“I bought him a car and we got him driving lessons, he got his licence then we got him through his SIA licence to get a job.
“The relationship was fine as far as I could tell, from me looking in I couldn’t see anything untoward.
“It was all mind games, he got into her head when this was going on and fooled everyone around him. He was basically gaslighting, manipulating and coercive.
“He controlled her, took her away from all her pals then took her away from us.
“When you look back, you can see things.
“Three years into the relationship we got them moved into a house – he had no money, it was me that put everything to it – that’s when the abuse started, although there had been some at my house when I wasn’t there.
“She used to come to visit in the summer and I would ask, ‘why are you wearing tights and a long top?’
“Obviously I think she was hiding bruises.
“This kept going on and on, I used to say I would come and visit and she’d go off her head asking why I was coming to visit. Ryan was there telling her to get me away from the door.”
The dad said his daughter is now on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety tablets
He continued: “She’s anxious all the time, she’s not her, she’s somebody different. She’s not the same girl, she’s an absolute wreck.”
Aside from wanting to see harsher sentences for the victims of domestic abuse, he also wants to raise awareness of the issue – to tell victims that help is out there and they don’t need to suffer in silence.
He continued: “After my daughter began to speak about it, me and my wife reached out to other people that had been through a similar scenario – some with broken noses and broken jaws and still getting these kind of sentences. It’s disgusting.”
The victim’s dad said the sentence in no way answers the serious nature of what Walker had put his daughter through.
He continued: “The sentence he’s been given means nothing. It doesn’t reflect that people shouldn’t be going through that, they should be speaking up. “There is help out there. DASAT and all the other teams have been fantastic with her.
“It’s a massive issue, it’s been raised by the Queen Consort, the government have imposed harsher sentences – but where is it? It’s not there.”
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