A PAISLEY thug who doted on his mum escaped punishment after he admitted attacking a woman after a row over giving his sick mum cigarettes.
Christopher McDowall, 29, was spared jail over the attack on his mum’s friend April McNaughton, 39.
He flipped after he found out she had given his mum Shona Young, 47, cigarettes who suffers from the lung condition chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
McDowall was enraged when he found out his mum had been given cigarettes by Ms McNaughton and sent her a message to tell her not to give her any more fags.
But he saw red when he found she had given her some more.
McDowall admitted the attack at a Paisley Sheriff Court hearing in June last year.
He carried out such a savage attack on Ms McNaughton he was accused of assaulting her with a knife and leaving her scarred, but denied this and pleaded guilty to a reduced charge.
Procurator Fiscal Depute David McDonald said Ms McNaughton was a friend of Shona Young’s and regularly took her food and medicine.
Ms McNaughton received a message in June 2017 from McDowall’s Facebook account which read, “stop giving my mum fags”.
On the morning of August 4, 2017, Ms McNaughton went to see Ms Young.
Mr McDonald, prosecuting, said: “Around 3pm, Mr McDowall attended and found cigarettes within. He asked his mother where she got them and she said April McNaughton had been in.
“Between 4pm and 5pm Ms McNaughton was at the locus, her home address, and spotted Mr McDowall standing in the doorway of her living room.”
They argued over the cigarettes and it escalated until McDowall began raining blows on Ms McNaughton’s head and body. McDowall then left the house, in Port Soy, Erskine.
When police arrested McDowall, who was living in Paisley Road, Renfrew, at the time, he denied his guilt, but later admitted it in court.
In June last year, on hearing McDowall was on a Community Payback Order (CPO) from another case Sheriff Tom McCartney deferred sentence for him to be of good behaviour.
When he returned to the dock this week,
McDowall was put on another CPO and ordered to attend alcohol counselling and mental health services.
With no unpaid work imposed with the CPO, McDowall effectively received no punishment.
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