A bungling Scots crook who broke into a couple's flat was whacked over the head with a frying pan before he sunk his teeth into their arms. Darren Gowran has been jailed for two years after forcing his way into the Stirling home of Armand and Liga Mierina while they slept at around 1.30am on March 14.
Falkirk Sheriff Court was told that the door entry system to the block of modern flats was out of operation and access to the common close was insecure. The couple, aged 63 and 57, were awoken by the sound of “loud kicking at the front door” of their Cowane Street home.
Armand found Gowran in the hallway - holding Liga's handbag - and confronted him before a violent struggle ensued which resulted in the would-be-thief smacking him in the face. Fiscal depute Smith said: “As a result of the accused struggling violently with Mr Mierina, Mrs Mierina obtained a frying pan from the kitchen and struck the accused on the back of the head with it."
Mr and Mrs Mierina both continued to grapple with Gowran, who at one point grabbed Mrs Mierina by the hair and pulled it. Miss Smith said that as Gowran continued to struggle violently with the couple, he bit them both on their right forearms, piercing the skin, before running out of the flat.
He fled empty handed with the shocked and shaken couple contacting their daughter, who called the police. Mr and Mrs Mierina were both left with "visible semi-circular marks on the forearm", the court was told.
Gowran, of Stirling, who appeared by video link from Low Moss Prison, Bishopbriggs, pleaded guilty to housebreaking, and assaulting the couple to their injury. Defence solicitor Fraser McCready said: "This was a nasty offence. He expresses his remorse. He was full of drugs. He can't remember much about it."
Gowran also admitted assaulting and injuring his sister's boyfriend, John Tardite, aged 25, in a separate incident at his mother's home in Balfour Street, Stirling, at 5.30 am the same day.
He threw a glass candle holder which struck Mr Tardite on the head. He then repeatedly punched him leaving the victim with a fractured eye socket.
Imposing the two-year jail term, Sheriff Christopher Shead said Gowran had shown "a significant level of violence".
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