A violent domestic abuse offender jumped from the dock and ran out of the courtroom as a sheriff was jailing him.

Callum Fairgreave tripped on the stairs outside Dunfermline Sheriff Court and fell to the ground before he was grabbed by police officers and marched back to the cells.

Fairgreave, 30, of McGregor Avenue, Lochgelly, was being sentenced for two assaults, on his former and current partners.

These assaults included choking both women, kicking, punching and a headbutt.

He was also caught driving when banned.

Sheriff Susan Duff had just told Fairgreave he was heading to jail when clambered out of the dock and ran out of the courtroom with a policeman in hot pursuit.

He made it out of the building but his escape bid was over within a minute as he was grabbed by the chasing police officers and huckled back to face justice.

Fairgreave had admitted that on 8th June last year at Russell Street, Lochgelly, he assaulted his former partner.

He kicked her on the body, causing her to fall to the ground, knocked a phone out of her hand, threw the phone at her, pushed her on to a bed, seized her by the neck, compressed it, restricted her breathing and butted her on the head, all to her injury.

Then on 18th June last year at McGregor Avenue, he assaulted his current partner.

He repeatedly punched her on the head and body, seized her by the neck, compressed it, restricting her breathing, threw a piece of glass at her and banged her head against stairs all to her injury.

He also admitted that on 8th December on a road at Lochgelly Centre, Bank Street, he drove when banned and without insurance.

Before the escape attempt, defence solicitor Stephen Morrison had said his client was “not proud of his behaviour in any shape or form”.

Sheriff Duff initially told Fairgreave that he was “a very lucky man” for the Crown to have brought the case under summary rather than solemn procedure, whereby he could have faced a longer sentence.

She said in cases where people are choked, “there are seconds between life and death”.

When Fairgreave was brought to the dock later, the sheriff told him as a result of his conduct he would not be given a discount on his sentence.

She jailed him for a year, imposed a three-year non-harassment order regarding his former partner and banned him from driving for three years.