Police officer threatened to stab woman and set mother's house on fire
PC Tariq Mahmood was found guilty of kicking one of his victims on the body and acting in an abusive manner towards a second woman, who was pregnant.
The charges against Mahmood, 45, stated that he repeatedly blamed one of his victims for their not having children together, and accused her of having an affair. He threatened to set fire to his partner's mother's home and spread lies that her step-father was a child molester.
Mahmood told the second woman that he would 'strangle or stab' her as she slept and threatened to take the couple's child away from her.
The woman said Mahmood constantly criticised her parenting skills, made derogatory remarks about her clothes and looks and accused of her of dressing to impress other men.
She also claimed Mahmood refused to speak to her if she did not have sex with him and only complimented her when she wore traditional Asian clothing during two years of abuse between December 2019 and November 2021.
The woman, also a serving police officer at the time, told Edinburgh sheriff court that she was so terrified by his behaviour after they split up that she changed the locks at her home and slept with a metal bar across the front door.
Mahmood, from Livingston, West Lothian, denied the allegations but was found guilty of abusing the woman this year. He was also found guilty of engaging in a course of behaviour that was abusive towards the other former partner by shouting, swearing and assaulting her, all between April 2019 and February 2022.
Sheriff John Cook told Mahmood on Wednesday that he had committed 'serious offences' but said there was an alternative to custody. Cook sentenced the officer to a two-year supervision order and said he must complete 120 hours of unpaid work.
The sheriff also ordered Mahmood to attend sessions with the domestic abuse organisation Up2U and imposed non-harassment orders regarding both women for four years.
Edith Forrest KC, representing Mahmood, said her client continued to 'maintain his denial' of the offences but he wanted to apologise to both victims. She that Mahmood, who joined the police in Birmingham in 2008 and transferred to Police Scotland ten years later, planned to resign from the force.
One of Mahmood's victims told the court that she met him while they were both serving police officers. They formed a relationship and she became pregnant in December 2019.
Mahmood formed an instant hatred of her mother and step-father, she said, threatened to burn down their house and claimed the step-father was a paedophile.
When the couple's child was born Mahmood became 'controlling' and 'unpredictable'. The woman said: 'I told him he was coercive and he didn't like that at all. I knew he was using [the child] as a control measure and he just wanted me to know [the child] was his.
'He was shocked I had pointed out that. We were both police officers and both had training in coercive control and domestic abuse.'
The woman said Mahmood had also threatened to take the child away from her after the couple had split in September 2021.
She said: 'I took [the child] to my grans house to stop him taking her to Birmingham because he said she would be better off with his family. I wasn't sure if he was going to take her to Pakistan, where he had family.
'I was terrified he was going to take her and I would never see her again. I was really scared of him.'
She told the court: 'He said he would strangle me or stab me in my sleep, then pass it off as a joke. I was scared of him, really scared of him. I was scared what he was capable of.
'I was scared I would wake up one day and he would be at the bottom of my bed. He tried to break me when I was at my lowest point.'
Chief Superintendent Helen Harrison, of Police Scotland, said: 'Mahmood's actions go against everything Police Scotland stands for.
'Our thoughts are with the victims and I hope this conviction provides them with some measure of closure. I commend their strength in reporting these crimes and bringing this individual to justice.'
Scottish Women's Aid said: 'This is a heart-breaking example of what happens to so many women.
'Children and women have told us for decades that coercive and controlling behaviours and the domination of everyday life are the most traumatic abuse and the hardest to recover from.
'The Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018 makes coercive control a crime, but our justice system fails survivors every day when it continues to minimise the impact of abuse if it doesn't involve a physical injury. One of the terrible consequences is sentences that do not reflect the harm and trauma caused by abusers.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Times
an hour ago
- Times
Victims of serial abuser and conman united to face him in court
It was the moment Scott Fraser had dreaded — the women he had abused, lied to and stolen from united in a courtroom, facing him together. In September last year Fraser pleaded guilty at Aberdeen sheriff court to abducting Debbie McFarlane, his former partner, and defrauding her of £50,000. He was given a community sentence. McFarlane sat in the public gallery but she was not alone; beside her were Fraser's three former wives and his adult daughter. 'I had wanted my day in court,' she said. 'I wanted to face him and tell the court what he had done but when he pled guilty at the last minute I wasn't given the chance. 'But I saw a 6ft 5in man crumble and fall in a heap when he saw wife number one, number two, number three and his daughter.' Given her chance to speak, she would have laid bare harrowing details. McFarlane, 54, had been approached by Fraser on social media. He pretended to have met her in person through a business associate and bombarded her with messages. In 2018, they met in person and McFarlane was charmed by the towering and impeccably dressed figure. According to the women who came into his orbit, he was charming, witty, well-read and attentive — a catch. He would also recount a heartbreaking backstory. On their first date, Fraser wept and said his former wife had killed James, their six-month-old boy, in a drunken car accident. His late son was immortalised on his arm with a tattoo, he said. McFarlane's previous relationship of 12 years had broken down after the sudden death of her stepson, prompting her to return from Houston, Texas, to her home city of Aberdeen. A wealthy businesswoman, she was financially stable and Fraser suggested he was too. However, she loaned him £30,000 to tide him over while he concluded a 'multi-million pound deal with energy giants Shell'. When the pandemic lockdown was introduced, he moved into her flat and became increasingly abusive. During one incident, in January 2021, Fraser became furious during a meal. The court was told that he locked the front door, took a knife from the kitchen and threatened her, then seized her phone and held her prisoner in her bedroom for five hours. Later in the relationship Fraser claimed he had aggressive prostate cancer and had just months to live. She paid tens of thousands of pounds for stem cell treatment. Her closest friend, who was dying with cancer, told her she did not believe Fraser was battling the disease at all. McFarlane said: 'I thought it was just the morphine talking.' Fraser was charged with stealing £50,000 from McFarlane, who maintains the true sum is closer to £120,000. Unknown to her, Fraser had spent the final six months of their relationship seeing a woman in Cheshire, claiming he was away on business or receiving medical treatment. McFarlane reported him to the police, prompting others to come forward. Fraser's daughter, Lauren, got in touch, claiming her father was a fantasist and inveterate liar. His social media presence is almost non-existent with a sparse LinkedIn page, which he used to approach women by direct message. His digital life was almost exclusively on dating former partners have few pictures of him and only sketchy details of his past. 'I'm a beige man, I leave no footprints in the sand,' he told McFarlane. However, he has an extensive record at Companies is listed as a former director of a company called OIM Energy Group in Aberdeen, which was set up in June 2014 and dissolved in January 2017. He asked one woman to invest money in one of his enterprises, which she did — and lost it did work offshore on oil rigs for a time and overseas as an engineer but he was unable to hold down work for any significant length of time and is believed to have misrepresented himself and his skillset to employers. He also worked as an instrumental engineer for an international defence company but earnings as a serial conman proved far more lucrative. A police officer familiar with the case said: 'You go to work and do your job. This is his job, this is what he does.' Fraser had a very limited friendship group and his social life was based around dining out and drinking, although one woman said cars were his 'great passion'. He always had a pet dog. His former partner Helen O'Connor — whom he blamed for the death of his infant son — contacted McFarlane. There had been no baby, no car accident and she was, it emerged, Fraser's third wife. When McFarlane uncovered his lies she contacted him on FaceTime and said: 'The game's up.' 'He said: 'I'm a troubled man' and cut off the call. That's the last time we ever spoke,' she told The Times. O'Connor's father was the late comedian and TV presenter Tom O'Connor and she believes Fraser targeted her for her money. They were married for just months, and he had also told her the lie of a dead baby. Fraser had first married a woman in Aberdeen but the relationship broke down around 2000 and he moved to England. He quickly met and married his second wife, who had been prepared to give evidence in support of McFarlane before Fraser's guilty plea. That marriage ended in 2009. During his next relationship he was fined twice at Aberdeen sheriff court: in 2016 for an incident of abusive behaviour towards his partner and then in 2017 for an incident of violence causing fear and alarm. He pleaded guilty on both occasions. Women with whom he was involved say the relationships were never sexual and he used his 'prostate cancer' as an excuse to avoid physical intimacy. For Fraser the control of his romantic partners was psychological. O'Connor became his third wife in December 2017. She was prepared to be called as a witness in support of McFarlane, having had a similar experience with Fraser. This week, another of Fraser's former partners was ready to take the witness stand and tell a court what he had done. The woman in Cheshire, whom Fraser had been seeing behind McFarlane's back, is also a successful businesswoman. She and her business are well known in her community and she has asked to be known only as Karen. Fraser met Karen on a dating app in March 2021 and in person in June. 'He's a very intelligent guy,' she said. 'And he seemed to have led an interesting life, as I have too. 'He was extremely well dressed. He was a subtle, classy dresser — nothing too showy or flashy. 'He could converse on any level, he was well travelled. We never stopped chatting and talking.' Fraser moved to the Lake District from Aberdeen in October that year and then moved in with Karen. He told her the move was prompted by the death from sepsis of his daughter, Lauren. He was traumatised and needed a change of scene. It was only last year that Karen discovered Lauren was alive and well. Unlike in other relationships, Fraser contributed to the household expenses but his 'flashes of temper' caused alarm. The first two years of the relationship were relatively settled but in the final six months Fraser would become angry over 'trivial' incidents. 'He was angry, shouting, banging his fist on the table, and it was always in public, which was humiliating and frightening,' Karen, 60, said. His behaviour was so unpleasant that when Karen began to suspect he was having an affair she felt relieved and hoped he would leave. One night he flew into a rage after being excluded from signing a birthday card. He grabbed Karen by her dressing gown lapel, lifting her off the floor and threatening to hire someone to kill her family. When she refused to accompany him to Aberdeen, where he was due to appear at trial for stealing from McFarlane, he put his hand to her throat. 'He took the keys and stormed out and locked me in the flat. I have no idea how long he was away for because you lose all concept of time,' Karen said. 'I was terrified.' Fraser left for Aberdeen and two days later Karen read coverage of the court case. She immediately changed the locks and went to police. Terrified of his temper, she kept in touch with him while he was away, phoning and texting him and keeping up a pretence that everything was fine. Seven days after his court appearance in Aberdeen, Fraser returned to England and went straight to a meeting with his probation officer where he was arrested. In February this year he was banned from driving for 12 months and fined £700, having driven to his probation meeting in Karen's car without a licence or insurance. On Monday he pleaded guilty to the offence of intentional strangulation and is due to be sentenced later this month at Chester crown court. McFarlane and the other women are now hopeful that Fraser will be given a custodial sentence. They believe his behaviour has gone unchecked for too long. The strangulation offence took place two days before his court date in Aberdeen for the offences against McFarlane and she believes this illustrates his lack of remorse. Karen said: 'I sometimes hate myself. I am an astute businesswoman. I think, 'Why did I not see through it?' 'I ask myself all the time how he lured me in. I just think I felt sorry for him.'
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Guilty, carer who had sex with disabled man she was looking after
A care worker engaged in sexual activity with a cerebral palsy sufferer she was supposed to be looking after. Megan Neilson, 28, was appointed to support the 29-year-old man who also has epilepsy and a learning disability. The pair quickly developed a close friendship which eventually led to them both declaring that they loved each other. Neilson repeatedly kissed and cuddled him during trips to a bowling alley and at Strathclyde Park while she later performed a sex act on him in a car parked at the Falkirk Wheel. Their relationship came to light after the pair turned up hand-in-hand at his dad's house and told him they were together. Neilson told the sickened father she would resign from her role as a support worker but police were called in. Neilson, of Airdrie, Lanarkshire, denied any wrongdoing and the case subsequently went to trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court. But jurors took an hour to convict her of engaging in sexual activity with the man while being a person who provided care services to him. Jurors were shown a police interview with the man where he told them how he believed he was in a relationship with Neilson and described sexual acts between them. He said: 'She said if anybody found out about us she would lose her job, her daughter and her college course. I felt awkward because this had never happened to me before.' When asked how he felt about telling his parents and the police about Neilson, he replied: 'I feel as if I made her a promise and broke it.' His father told the court he had been 'suspicious' of the pair before they visited him and revealed the relationship. He recalled: 'They said 'we've something to tell you, we are in a relationship' and it took a while for it to sink in. 'I questioned Megan that it would be so wrong because she was one of his carers and she said 'I'm going to leave anyway so it will be fine'. The father added: 'I was in shock but then realised my suspicion was confirmed that there was something going on and I had this sickly feeling because it was a major breach of trust by the support worker working with him. He is still not the same wee laddie.' The court was also shown messages that had been sent from Neilson to the man. One said: 'I love you. If it means losing everything, that's fine.' However, she then added: 'Delete this, mind.' Neilson denied that there had ever been any sexual contact between the pair but said she resigned from her support role after developing an 'emotional relationship' with him. The mother-of-two added: 'I'm not sure why he has said this, it was maybe because he couldn't be with me but I can't get my head round it. I feel terrible, it has affected me really, really badly and it has given me a lot of anxiety but there was nothing sexual between me and him.' Depute fiscal Lewis Devoy told jurors Neilson had committed a 'gross breach of trust' and said the man had 'no reason' to lie. Lewis Kennedy, defence advocate, told the jury: 'Her position is really straightforward and that is she was only involved in an emotional relationship with the complainer and that it was never sexual.' Sheriff Linda Nicolson deferred sentence on the first offender until next month for reports and continued her bail. Neilson, who is now unemployed, was placed on the sex offenders register.
Daily Mail
2 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Former Lord Provost of Glasgow banned from going near ex-partner for five years
A former Lord Provost of Glasgow who bombarded his ex-partner with texts and social media messages has been banned from going near her for five years. At Glasgow Sheriff Court on Friday, Philip Braat was also ordered to carry out 60 hours of unpaid work and fined £840. The 49-year-old, of the city's Broomhill, had earlier pleaded guilty to a single charge of stalking after he contacted the woman more than 100 times between July and September 2024 in a bid to win her back. The pair started dating in 2021 and went on to live together. But the woman ended the relationship a year ago. She received an email the next day from the councillor which included an apparent resignation letter to his employer. Fiscal Paige Phillips said: 'The woman thought that this was fake and to get her attention as well as to make her feel guilty.' Braat attempted to persuade her that they should be together and stated he could 'not live' without her'. He said: 'You better visit my parents and you better keep my legacy alive.' She believed that this was in reference to Braat ending his life. Between July and September, she received 18 emails, 51 Instagram messages, 15 text messages, 37 WhatsApp messages and a LinkedIn message. Some of the emails contained 'goodbye' letters to the woman and Braat's own family. She stated that the messages were not nasty but there was 'no escape' from Braat and she could 'not cope any longer'. Solicitor advocate Andrew Seggie, defending, told the court: 'He was the Lord Provost during the pandemic and he felt additional pressure to assist those who lost loved ones as a result of the pandemic. 'He was trying to manage this and juggle his own family issues and the end of the relationship caused him to suffer a mental health breakdown.' Sheriff Owen Mullan imposed the non-harassment order and said the unpaid work must be completed within six months. He said Braat 'overstepped the mark' and it would have been 'stressful' for the woman. Braat has served the Anderston/City/Yorkhill ward since 2007 and is subject of an investigation by Scottish Labour.
