Hassan jailed for almost two years
A SHETLAND man with a violent history was jailed for almost two years at Lerwick Sheriff Court on Wednesday after he admitted assaulting a young woman by presenting a knife at her.
Last month 49 year old Ebrahim Hassan, a prisoner in Inverness, admitted breaching his curfew to commit the assault at the 23 year old woman’s home in the Sandveien area of Lerwick on 17 December last year.
At the time Hassan had been released after serving half of a two year prison sentence for dealing amphetamine to feed his heroin habit.
The court accepted he had no intention of actually using the weapon, but the woman had not known that and was very distressed.
On Wednesday defence agent Tommy Allan insisted Hassan accepted he had done wrong, despite comments he made to social workers who compiled background reports on him for sentencing.
Mr Allan said: “This is something which happened in the heat of the moment. The exact circumstances are perhaps difficult to determine, but the bottom line is that Mr Hassan accepts his guilt and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
“He deeply regrets what he did and if there was any way he could compensate the victim for that he would gladly do it.”
The agent added that Hassan had used his time in jail to kick his drug habit and was now extremely motivated to stay out of prison to support his family.
However Sheriff Philip Mann said that could not allow the fact he had committed an offence after being released early from prison to go unpunished.
He ordered him to serve another six months of his original sentence, and after that to start a 16 month sentence for the knife crime, despite social workers recommending a supervised release order. “You are clearly, or have been, a man of violence,” the sheriff said.
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