Edinburgh optician jailed for over three years for domestic abuse and child assault
Optician given prison sentence and non-harassment order for assaults
An Edinburgh optician convicted of domestic abuse against his former partner has been sentenced to more than three years in prison and issued an indefinite non-harassment order.
Lambert Kouadio-Tiacoh, 41, repeatedly struck the woman to the head, prohibited her from using social media and ordered her to avoid any contact with men during their abusive relationship.
Kouadio-Tiacoh monitored the woman’s bank accounts, made her video call him every day from her workplace to make sure where she was and refused her permission to own a smartphone.
The French-Ivorian national, who has owned several optician businesses in the Capital, forced the victim onto her knees and told her she should be “stoned to death” after finding out she had been unfaithful to him.
He was also found to have assaulted three children he was looking after by locking them in a bedroom and striking them with a belt at several addresses around Edinburgh.
Kouadio-Tiacoh assaulted the children by repeatedly pulling their ears, striking them to the top of their heads and punished them by forcing them to perform squats with their arms extended.
Kouadio-Tiacoh, of Leith, denied all the allegations but a jury found him guilty of five charges on indictment following a five day trial at the city’s sheriff court last month.
The woman told the court she had been “brainwashed” into resuming the relationship following her affair and the eye specialist soon became controlling and violent towards her.
She said one violent incident had left her bleeding and with swollen face and the abuse had seen Kouadio-Tiacoh control her finances, her use of social media and isolated her from her family.
The jury returned unanimous guilty verdicts to the optician assaulting the woman and engaging in a course of abusive behaviour, along with majority verdicts on the assaults on the children, all between April 2019 and September 2023.
He was remanded in custody pending sentencing and returned to the court on Wednesday August 26 where Sheriff Alison Stirling said custody was “the only appropriate disposal” due to “the seriousness of the offending”.
The sheriff also described Kouadio-Tiacoh as “a flight risk” after revealing he had fled the country to the Ivory Coast earlier in the criminal proceedings against him.
The law chief sentenced Kouadio-Tiacoh to a 42 month prison term and imposed a non-harassment order that bans him from contacting his victim for an indefinite period.
Defence advocate Andrew Crosbie said his client had “clearly crossed the line in his conduct” and he hoped to “pick up where he left off” with his career following the sentencing.
Kouadio-Tiacoh’s sister Suzanne Kouadio-Tiacoh also stood trial accused of assaulting two children she had been asked to look after at her home in Edinburgh.
She was alleged to have punished the two children by forcing them to squat with their arms extended for long period of time and striking one child with a belt on various occasions between July 2021 and July 2023.
But after hearing all the evidence the jury returned majority not guilty verdicts and the 50-year-old was allowed to walk free from the dock.