The trial of a man accused of abducting his partner will go ahead in the New Year.

Michael O'Neill, 47 is alleged to have committed the offence at Annan Rugby Club, and then on the nearby A75.

O'Neill is said to have seized the woman, who was his partner at the time, by the hair, dragging her into a vehicle, refusing to allow her to leave and repeatedly punching her as she jumped from the moving car.

The charges at Dumfries Sheriff Court allege two charges of assaulting her at Shawhill Road in Annan in September 2009 and also hitting her with a mobile phone at the Welcome Break car park at Gretna in January, 2011.

He is also accused of behaving in a threatening manner towards her at the Queensberry Hotel in Annan in late 2010 and threatening her and a man at a house at Back of the Hill in Annan in March 2014.

The case against O'Neill, from Glasgow, was adjourned by the Sheriff at Dumfries until January for further preparation.