The Zumba teacher, the Army wife and a punch-up in the ladies
A MILITARY wife living in Cyprus punched a Zumba instructor she feared was trying to sleep with her husband, a court heard.
Zoe Phythian, 29, flew into a rage after she came across a message from Catherine Warhurst on her husband’s iPad.
She vowed to confront the forces’ dental hygienist – who also taught Zumba at the Army base gym – and ended up attacking her in the toilets at a mess Christmas ball.
Phythian asked Miss Warhurst why she had been contacting her husband, Staff Sergeant Shawn Pearey, and accused her of being a ‘homewrecker’, the court was told.
Staff Sgt Pearey then entered the toilets and, addressing his alleged lover, said: ‘Will you tell her nothing has happened and nothing has gone on between us?’
Phythian, a mother-of-five and former soldier with the Royal Signals, admitted there was a confrontation but denied physical violence.
However, a judge advocate yesterday convicted her of one count of battery at Portsmouth Court Martial Centre.
The case – similar to a magistrates’ court hearing – took place in a military court because the defendant and victim were both civilians abroad with the Armed Services at the time of the offence.
Colonel Alex Fryatt, prosecuting, said: ‘At 10pm one night in November 2014 the accused was in bed watching a programme on the iPad when up popped a message to her husband from the victim.
‘This wound up the accused, that she was sending a message through Facebook.
‘She was angry as she believed the victim had a reputation as a homewrecker, and that the victim was shameless in that behaviour.’
Giving evidence yesterday, Phythian said: ‘I didn’t think the message was appropriate. It annoyed me because I knew of her reputation.
‘I knew she was trying it on with my husband but I knew he wouldn’t go there.
‘One of my friends who was heavily pregnant, well [ Miss Warhurst] was sleeping with her husband. She’s the sort of person who somehow manages to sleep with married men.’
Miss Warhurst knew Phythian’s husband because he ran the gym at the base in Dhekelia, Cyprus, where the hygienist taught Zumba dance classes. The court heard that she called him a ‘strange man’ in the message because their relationship had turned ‘funny and weird’.
She also accused him of making it difficult for her to hold
‘Trying it on with my husband’
classes. Phythian claimed she was suspicious as the message started with the words: ‘Why are you treating me like this?’
On the night of the Christmas ball in December 2014, Miss Warhurst went into the ladies’ toilets at Dhekelia’s Sandy Beach Hotel with three friends, when Phythian followed them.
The court heard the defendant asked Miss Warhurst: ‘Why have you been texting my husband?’
The victim claimed she barely had time to answer ‘What?’ when she was grabbed by the throat – an allegation the judge rejected.
Miss Warhurst was taken into a cubicle by one of her friends, but Phythian started banging on the door, the court heard.
When they finally opened the door Phythian punched the victim’s nose, causing it to bleed. The arrival of her husband only ‘made matters worse’ when he asked Miss Warhurst to tell his wife that nothing was going on between them, it was claimed.
The confrontation ended soon afterwards when Staff Sgt Pearey was able to usher his wife out of the toilets – although witnesses said she branded Miss Warhurst a ‘whore’ before leaving.
The hygienist was left ‘ upset and shaken’ by the attack, which bruised the bridge of her nose, the hearing was told.
Phythian, whose husband was not present at the hearing yesterday, was handed a 12month conditional discharge.