Adobe StockA man who reverse-rammed a van containing his pregnant sister-in-law and her husband as part of a family dispute has been jailed.
Terrance Maughan, 28, was told by a sheriff he had “used his car as a weapon” during the incident in Falkirk.
Maughan’s sister-in-law, who was 34 weeks pregnant, was in the front seat of her husband’s stationary Ford Transit van in Grangemouth.
Prosecutor Jamie Hillend said Maughan was aware that his sister-in-law was pregnant.
The incident happened at around 8.10 pm on July 17, 2023.
Mr Hillend told Falkirk Sheriff Court: “[Maughan’s sister-in-law and her husband] were in [the husband’s] Ford Transit parked in Glenside Court, Grangemouth.
“They saw the accused driving by in a Ford Focus. He stopped and immediately reversed at [the husband’s] van at speed, colliding with the driver’s side middle of the vehicle with force.”
Maughan then “accelerated away at speed”, out of view.
Mr Hillend, the deputy fiscal, said the couple drove back to home nearby and contacted police.
Officers arrived to find the sister-in-law “shocked”.
Mr Hillend said: “She seemed very scared and was experiencing slight pain to her abdomen from her seat belt, and pain to her right hand from hitting the dashboard.”
An ambulance was called, with the sister-in-law saying she was concerned for the welfare of the unborn baby.
She was checked over and found to be uninjured.
The damaged Ford Focus was later traced and Maughan was arrested.
Defence solicitor Ross McGowan said: “There was an ongoing family dispute. There had been arguments.”
The court heard that a few weeks later, in an unrelated incident, Maughan and another man, their faces masked and armed with knives, forced their way into a flat in Stenhousemuir, Stirlingshire, looking for drugs.
They assaulted the lone female occupant, presented knives at her head, and tried to rob her of a quantity of controlled drugs.
Maughan, of Grangemouth, pleaded guilty to dangerous driving and armed attempted robbery.
He was jailed on Tuesday, April 22, for three years and nine months, and disqualified from driving for five years.
Sheriff Maryam Labaki described the van-ramming was “a very serious offence”.
She said: “You used your car as a weapon and reversed into a vehicle containing your family members, one of whom was 34 weeks pregnant.”
Sheriff Labaki said the attempted robbery “must have been the stuff of nightmares” for the lone female victim.
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