A burglar who fled a Stirling couple’s flat after being hit over the head with a frying pan was yesterday (Thursday) jailed for two years.
Darren Gowran (26) had forced his way into the home in Cowane Street when they were asleep at 1.30am.
Falkirk Sheriff Court was told that the door entry system to the block of modern flats was out of operation and access to the common close was insecure.
Prosecutor Sarah Smith said a man (63) and woman (57) were both woken by the sound of “loud kicking at the front door”.
The man found Gowran in the hallway, holding his wife’s handbag.
He confronted Gowran, who hit him in the face, and a violent struggle ensued as Gowran tried to get the purse out of the handbag
Miss Smith said: “As a result of the accused struggling violently with her husband, the woman obtained a frying pan from the kitchen and struck the accused on the back of the head with it.”
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The couple both continued to grapple with Gowran, who at one point grabbed the woman by the hair and pulled it.
Miss Smith said that as Gowran continued to struggle violently he bit them both on their right forearms, piercing the skin, before running out of the flat and escaping - without either the handbag or the purse.
The shocked and shaken couple contacted their daughter, who called the police.
Miss Smith, the depute fiscal, said the couple were both left with “visible semi-circular marks on the forearm”.
The incident occurred at the couple’s Cowane Street home on March 14 this year.
Gowran, of Stirling, who appeared by video link from Low Moss Prison, Bishopbriggs, pleaded guilty to housebreaking, and assaulting the couple to their injury.
Defence solicitor Fraser McCready said: “This was a nasty offence. He expresses his remorse. He was full of drugs. He can’t remember much about it.”
Gowran also admitted assaulting and injuring a man, aged 25, in a separate incident at his mother’s home in Balfour Street, Stirling, at 5.30am the same day, by throwing a glass candle holder at him, which struck the man on the head. He then repeatedly punched him. The victim suffered a fractured eye socket. Gowran was arrested later.
Imposing the two-year jail term, Sheriff Christopher Shead said Gowran had shown “a significant level of violence”.
