Robert Simmons, drew up daily timetables of tasks for his wife divided into 15-minute slots
A controlling husband who hosed his wife with cold water and forced her to keep a ‘mistake book’ during a 30-year reign of terror was today jailed for two years and eight months.
Robert Simmons, 62, of Sandness, Shetland, drew up daily timetables of tasks for his 59-year-old wife Karen divided into slots of 15 minutes, and punished her if she failed to follow it.
The father-of-six, who was a regular churchgoer, subjected her to ‘one of the very worst cases of domestic abuse’, Lerwick Sheriff Court was told.
He admitted 11 charges dating from 1988 until March this year at court last month.
‘I did wrong,’ he said in a statement read to the court. ‘At no time did I think she deserved this. I see things differently now. I don’t think she deserved to be treated the way I treated her or to have the things I said to her said to her.’
The court was told how he created an ‘almost cult-like’ atmosphere, in which his wife was forced to carry notebooks, including a ‘mistake book’, where she was forced to maintain a record of all the times she failed to please Simmons.
In another book she kept a ‘record of observations the accused would make about random aspects of life’. Police seized hundreds of these books from their home.
Simmons admitted 11 charges dating from 1988 until March this year and has now been jailed
The court heard how Simmons created an ‘almost cult-like atmosphere’ at the home, using his religion as justification for his ‘coercive and controlling’ behaviour.
In one statement given in a police interview and relayed to the court, Simmons said that his wife had taken ‘a vow of obedience to me’.
Simmons was said to have seen himself as the authority in the house responsible for setting the rules – and also for doling out punishment when those rules were broken.
But the rules ‘changed so frequently… that it became impossible for the complainer to get it right’, procurator fiscal Duncan MacKenzie said.
During the 1990s one method of punishment involved having his wife stand in an outbuilding while he hosed her with cold water.
One method of punishment by Simmons involved having his wife stand in an outbuilding while he hosed her with cold water. Pictured: The family home in Sandness, Shetland
In 1991 he forced her into the boot of a car after she fled the house and in the next year he compressed her throat to a point where breathing became restricted.
Another incident saw Simmons compel his wife to lie on the floor. He then placed his weight on her head by standing on it, giving her two black eyes.
In 1998 Simmons pushed his wife to the floor with a force that caused nerve damage which was said to still cause her discomfort to this day.
Simmons also assaulted his wife in a car in 2015, leaving her with a black eye and bloody nose. Later that year he hit her across the back of the legs with a plastic pipe.
Mr MacKenzie told how Simmons also confessed to police that he did ‘hands-on stuff’, adding: ‘She knows I’m serious when I do that.’
Lerwick Sheriff Court (above) was told this was ‘one of the very worst cases of domestic abuse’
Tommy Allan, defending, tried to ensure ‘everything that can be said for Mr Simmons is said’, but in the ‘strictest sense there can be no mitigation of the offences’.
Mr Allan said that the offences were divided into two parts, with a gap of well over a decade occurring between those in the late 1990s and the most recent incidents.
The defence agent also said that the Crown’s representation of Mrs Simmons as so isolated she could not even meet friends for a cup of coffee was misleading.
She had maintained the flat in Lerwick that she had occupied before she met Mr Simmons and ‘would regularly stay there two or three nights a week’, Mr Allan said.
Mr Allan alluded to a point which Simmons had supposedly raised himself, questioning how ‘a man of his age… would fare in a custodial setting’.
Simmons lived in Sandness (file picture), where he subjected his wife to a campaign of terror
He added that he could not accept the opinion stated in criminal justice social work reports that only a custodial sentence was appropriate.
Sentencing Simmons today, Sheriff Philip Mann said he would not take a ‘hang ’em high, lynch mob attitude’ despite calls for the case to be sent to the High Court.
Instead, he chose to use his sentencing powers of up to five years in custody – and told Simmons that his early plea avoided a likely sentence of four years in jail.
Sheriff Mann said he considered how the early guilty plea meant the victim did not have to give ‘distressing evidence’ in court, and that there was a public interest in showing that ‘domestic abuse will not be tolerated’ in order to reach his decision.
After the case, Police Scotland Detective Inspector Andy Logan said: ‘Robert Simmons is a controlling individual who submitted his victim to sustained abuse and suffering over the course of decades.
Sheriff Philip Mann said today that he would not take a ‘hang ’em high, lynch mob attitude’
‘The suffering he inflicted is deplorable and I would like to pay tribute to the strength of character shown by his victim in coming forward and ultimately helping to bring Simmons to justice.
Simmons (pictured) was said to have been ‘a controlling individual who submitted his victim to sustained abuse and suffering’
‘Although it does not change anything that happened, I hope that the people affected by Simmons deplorable behaviour can take some comfort from the verdict and continue to move forward with their lives.
‘This was a complex investigation involving local officers and specialist support from the Public Protection Unit.
‘I hope that the conviction of Robert Simmons demonstrates that Police Scotland will robustly and sensitively investigate domestic abuse crimes, no matter the passage of time. It is certainly no barrier to justice.’
And a Shetland Women’s Aid spokesman said: ‘Domestic abuse takes the form of coercive control and can be emotional, physical, sexual or financial.
‘It can affect anyone in any walk of life. Sentencing of a perpetrator can only be seen as part of a survivor’s journey to recovery.’
She added: ‘We aim to empower women and children to regain control of their lives and feel safe, and to determine their own futures.
‘We would encourage anyone affected by domestic abuse or other gender-based violence, current or historical, to contact the service to discuss the options with our highly trained and experienced staff in a non-judgmental environment.’