Bumble con man Kieran Donnelly sentenced for domestic abuse

The 43-year-old, who uses the false name Keir Breslin, pleaded guilty to charges of harassment and domestic abuse against four women.

Paisley Sheriff Court heard how he carried out a campaign of harassment against his victims, beginning in August 2019.

The depute fiscal told the court how Donnelly was the focus of an investigation by the Police Scotland Domestic Abuse Taskforce, which was set up to target serial domestic abusers.

He said: "The accused was identified as a target of that team and an enquiry was alerted to [one of the victims] in 2020."

Initially there were six women involved in the complaint against Donnelly but he pleaded not guilty to charges involving two complainers and those please were accepted.

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The court heard that Donnelly met his first victim in July 2019 on a dating app.

They had only been on a few dates when he showed up at her home with a suitcase. "This seemed strange to her," the prosecutor told the court, "but due to his moody behaviour she didn't ask him why."

Donnelly then asked the woman for a loan of £100, which she gave him, and asked to store his belongings in her house.

The woman was then on a night out with friends when Donnelly kept persistently phoning and texting her, asking her why she was out with friends and not with him.

He turned up at the venue and asked the women to come outside to speak to him, appearing upset and telling her he had been diagnosed with "cancerous cells".

She felt sorry for him and so went home with him.

A few weeks later, in August 2019, the pair had been at a concert in Glasgow's west end before going to Stravaigan bar and restaurant.

Donnelly was seen by two witnesses holding the woman's arm as if to restrict her movement and forcefully grabbing the back of her head and pulling her in for a kiss. When Donnelly went to the bathroom, one of the witnesses approached to ask if she was alright.

The woman explained that she had only met Donnelly a couple of weeks prior and that she did not want him to go home with her.

When Donnelly returned, the woman asked for the key to her house back and said she did not want him to stay the night.

The accused reacted badly to this and the male witness approached to check she was ok, to which Donnelly told him: "Stay out of my f*cking affairs".

Embarrassed by his behaviour and worried about causing a scene, the woman agreed to go outside for a cigarette with Donnelly.

The male witness went outside to check the woman was ok and a scuffle broke out between Donnelly and the man.

The court heard Donnelly told the man, "You have no idea the things I could do to you" before the altercation ended.

Scared for her safety, the woman stayed with her ex-husband that night and was frightened to go home in case Donnelly had let himself in.

Donnelly met his second victim in September 2019, also on a dating app and using the false name Keir Breslin.

The prosecutor told the court Donnelly would spend time at the second woman's home when her son was not there. One evening she was looking at her phone when Donnelly grabbed it from her hand, causing her to be shocked at his behaviour.

He became abusive and accused her of seeing other men while scrolling through the messages on her phone.

Later that night, while in bed, she looked at her phone again and, again, Donnelly, of Dalry, Ayrshire, became abusive and accusatory.

She told him to leave but he refused. A few days later, ahead of a pre-arranged meeting, the woman told Donnelly she did not want to see him again and he became threatening.

The depute fiscal told the court how Donnelly bombarded her with messages such as, "You think you have made a fool out of a man you shouldn't have".

The woman looked Donnelly up online and found websites in Hong Kong that detailed allegations of domestic abuse against him.

Concerned, she reported him to Police Scotland.

In November 2019, Donnelly began seeing the third woman, who he had also met on a dating app.

They met in a pub on Glasgow's Sauchiehall Street but she felt him to be "quite arrogant" and did not want to see him again.

Initially Donnelly accepted the rejection but before long began to phone and text the woman with abusive messages.

At one point she had 34 missed calls from him in a short time period and texts calling her a "whore" and a "psycho".

While on a Christmas night out on December 20, around 12.30am, the woman received a phone call from another woman saying Donnelly was texting around 50 other women.

This fourth woman told her that there were news stories online from Hong Kong accusing Donnelly of domestic violence there.

She could hear Donnelly shouting in the background, "She is a cow. I have only met her once".

The sounds down the phone became muffled before the line went dead.

In January 2020 the woman went to the police due to Donnelly's continued abusive text messages and phone calls.

The fourth woman met Donnelly on a dating app using the name Keir Breslin in August 2019 but didn't meet him until November that year.

The prosecutor told the court that Donnelly asked to meet the woman's son but she believed the relationship was moving too fast and said no.

In response, Donnelly became controlling and possessive, constantly asking where the woman was and for photos showing she was fully clothed.

On December 20, 2019, the couple arranged to meet at the woman's home where they began arguing as Donnelly accused her of having affairs.

They went to bed and around 2am the accused's mobile phone kept beeping with message notifications so the woman moved to switch it off.

She noticed sexual content from multiple women and was shocked by some of the content.

The woman went out to her car to call one of the women, who told her Donnelly's real name and the content of the Hong Kong websites.

Returning to the house, she asked Donnelly to leave but he called her a "f*cking lunatic" and refused to leave until 7am that morning.

She ended the relationship but Donnelly, again, began to send abusive and threatening text messages, including one telling her to "die", and phone her at all hours from a withheld number.

The woman became frightened and called the police.

Donnelly was eventually picked up by police when they were called to the Chrystal Palace bar on Glasgow's Jamaica Street after staff called them to say there was a man on the premises looking to speak to officers.

His mother had reported him missing and he wanted to tell officers he was well.

The abuse occurred at various locations across Glasgow, Paisley, West Dunbartonshire, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Cumbernauld and Dumbarton.

Donnelly's defence brief said he "accepted his culpability" but wanted to make it clear that he had never been charged for any offences during his time living in Hong Kong.

The lawyer also said: "He accepts the course of conduct he engaged with is serious and he realises a custodial sentence is an option."

Sheriff Brian Mohan replied: "The bigger problem is that he seems to be completely tin-eared to the views of others and the impact of his behaviour on these women."

The court heard a report from justice social work identified Donnelly as at risk of re-offending the sheriff expressed repeated concerns that the accused seemed not to understand the impact of his behaviour.

Sheriff Mohan said Donnelly has a "warped attitude" to relationships, turning "controlling and abusive in a short space of time" after initially showing "neediness".

He added: "When they want to take control back by ending the situation he doesn't allow it".

The sheriff told Donnelly he should be "squirming" at the description of his "sinister, threatening and frightening" behaviour, adding that he "did not know when to stop".

The court was told Donnelly has one prior conviction from 2009.

Sheriff Mohan placed the accused on a community payback order with a supervision requirement that compels him to attend the anti-domestic abuse Caledonian men's project for two years.

He was also given two year non-harassment orders barring him from contacting the four women and was told he must return to court in July to ensure he has been of consistent good behaviour.

The sentence is a direct alternative to custody so, should Donnelly breach any of the terms, he would face jail.