A VIOLENT man who carried out a series of attacks on his former partner and her three children has been sent to prison and banned from contacting the family.

Simon Livingstone repeatedly assaulted the woman by punching her to the body and abused her by threatening to kill her and any future partners over a nine-year period.

He punched the terrified victim, launched a fan heater at her and spat in the faces of her three children during several outbursts at her home in Port Seton.

Livingstone, 34, also threw the family dog during one incident and was said to have controlled and limited the woman’s movements and contact with her family throughout the couple’s relationship.

He denied all the allegations but was found guilty of seven charges by a jury after he stood trial on indictment at Edinburgh Sheriff Court last November.

Livingstone returned to the dock for sentencing last Wednesday, where he was sentenced to an extended jail term and banned from contacting the woman and her children for five years.

Sheriff Derek O’Carroll described the course of offending that the jury had decided was proven as “very serious offences” and in his view there was “no alternative to a custodial sentence”.

Livingstone, of Windsor Park, Musselburgh, was jailed for two years and was told he would be supervised for a further 12 months following his release.

Solicitor Andrew Mellor, representing Livingstone, said that his client had been suffering from mental health problems that had contributed to his abusive behaviour.

Mr Mellor told the court that Livingstone “recognises the seriousness of the impact [of his behaviour] on his former partner and children”.

Following the four-day trial, the jury found Livingstone guilty of three charges of assault and engaging in a course of conduct that was abusive of his partner between January 1, 2011, and August 28, 2020.

He was also found guilty of assaulting three children and acting aggressively towards them between December 17, 2013, and August 28, 2020.