Concerned father caught domestic abuse on secret recording device in Fife

A father put a secret recording device in his heavily pregnant daughter’s home and caught her partner making violent threats as she cried.

Emil Paszkowksi, 36, was heard calling his victim a whore and telling her she could easily go “flying down stairs in a minute”.

The recording was passed to police and Paszkowski was taken into custody.

He appeared last week at Dunfermline Sheriff Court.

Placed recording device

Prosecutor Azrah Yousaf told the court the couple have been in a relationship for about four years and live together.

At the time of the offence she was eight months pregnant.

The woman said Paszkowski does not like her parents, who are unhappy with the relationship and this has caused arguments.

Ms Yousaf said the woman’s parents made a surprise visit to Scotland from Poland.

“Prior to leaving, the father has installed a voice recording USB stick in the living room, near the TV on a shelf and did so because he is deeply concerned about his daughter and hoped in his own way to collect evidence”.

His daughter was unaware of his actions.

Abuse caught on recording

The father received a message from his daughter the next day saying not to come over but, concerned something was wrong, he visited the house again and swapped the recording device for another.

The fiscal said Paszkowski was heard to say “you are a whore” and “get the f**k out of my house”.

Concerned for her safety, she went out for a walk but was subjected to similar abuse when she returned.

The fiscal said: “He indicated, ‘I want to hurt you but won’t because you are pregnant’ and then told her she could go back home to Poland with her parents.”

The court heard Paszkowski left a voicemail message with one of her parents saying “get the f**k out of our life”.

The fiscal said her father listened to the voice recording in which Paszkowski said: “These f***ers can do what they want, can’t they?

“You could easily go flying down stairs in a minute.

“You are going to have this baby with your parents.

“Give me the f***ing phone. You have destroyed this relationship you dirty whore.

“Give me the phone. Call them or I am going to hurt you.”

His daughter was crying in the background.

‘Stressed’ by visit

Paszkowski, of Inverkeithing, pled guilty to a domestically-aggravated charge of behaving in a threatening or abusive manner between July 8 and 10 this year.

Defence lawyer Alan Davie said the woman had moved from Poland to live with Paszkowksi and it is understood her parents have never been happy with this.

The solicitor said there have been disagreements between Paszkowski and her father before so when he was told of their unannounced visit he became “fairly stressed”.

“He tells me he had a panic attack at his work and when he returned home, he was very agitated.

“None of this excuses the way he spoke to his partner and he very much regrets that.”

Mr Davie said first offender Paszkowski – aided in court by a Polish interpreter – feels the woman’s parents “control her” and said his conduct was “out of character”.

Sheriff Mark O’Hanlon told Paszkowski: “There is an issue between you and your partner’s parents – that issue is between you and them, it’s nothing to do with your partner.”

He said given they are still a couple and now have a child, he would defer sentence for six months to prove he could be of good behaviour.

For more local court content visit our page or join us on Facebook.