Pregnant schoolgirl beaten by lover

The sheriff described the relationship as unbelievable

A man who battered his pregnant schoolgirl lover has escaped a jail sentence after a court heard that her parents allowed her to sleep with him.

Perth Sheriff Court also heard that the teenager may have been unfaithful to Muhammad Bajjawi.

Bajjawi, 19, from Perth, admitted assaulting the 15-year-old last year after she told him that she was expecting a baby that might not be his.

They had been having sex in her home with the consent of her parents, a situation Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said was "verging on the unbelievable".

This is verging on the unbelieveable. One is tempted to say one despairs

Sheriff Foulis

Bajjawi's solicitor told the court that his client had a domineering attitude to women because his parents were from the Middle East.

Sheriff Foulis declined to jail Jordan-born Bajjawi, and said: "There are sexual offences and there are sexual offences."

He put him on probation and ordered him to do 200 hours unpaid work.

Former boxer Bajjawi punched the girl in the stomach after raining blows on her head and body for several minutes.

The sheriff was told that the girl's own parents allowed her to sleep with Bajjawi.

Bajjawi escaped a jail sentence

"This is verging on the unbelieveable," he said. "One is tempted to say one despairs.

"Someone of 15 and someone of nearly 20 in a sexual relationship and having a child.They are old before their time."

Sheriff Foulis said: "To be talking about the faithfulness of a 15-year-old is verging on the unbelievable.

"Relationships between teenagers seem to me to be in a situation where someone goes out with someone for a while then they are chucked. That's the norm."

Bajjawi admitted having unlawful sex with the girl.

They had sex for four months until the girl became pregnant and matters erupted on 19 June last year.

'Role model'

Fiscal depute Bruce Macrossan said: "The accused began to doubt he was the father of the child and he hit her in the stomach, saying the baby was not his."

Mrs McKay said Bajjawi had such a domineering and bullying attitude to women because his parents were from Kuwait.

She said: "Perhaps his role model is not a western one, but one where women have their place. That has contributed to his behaviour and the possessiveness and intensity of it.

"He received information which led him to believe she was not being faithful to him and that put pressure on the relationship.

"An argument took place. He was anxious to determine paternity. She had said to him she did not know whether the baby was his."

Bajjawi, who has a previous conviction for a mobile phone mugging, was also ordered to get anger management counselling.