You are a nasty drunk!
Kate’s Uncle Gary is fined £5k for punching his wife during a row and is told by judge...
THE Duchess of Cambridge’s uncle behaved like a ‘nasty drunk’ when he knocked his wife unconscious ‘with a left hook’ during a late-night argument, a court heard. Gary Goldsmith, 52, knocked his wife Julie-Ann, 47, to the ground outside their home as they returned home from a charity auction.
Yesterday the millionaire ‘black sheep’ of the Middleton family – Carole Middleton’s younger brother – was fined £5,000 and given a community order.
But a restraining order put into place as part of his bail was removed after a court heard the couple hoped to reconcile.
Senior District Judge Emma Arbuthnot described Goldsmith as being a ‘nasty drunk’ and being responsible for ‘loutish behaviour’ as she heard how the couple argued as they were being driven home from the event at Home House, a private members’ club in London.
She added: ‘The taxi driver listened as you argued. Your wife accused you of taking drugs and leaving her alone for most of the evening. You called her a nothing and whore.’
When the assault took place the driver, Daniel Shepherd, tried to reason with Goldsmith. But the magistrate added: ‘You squared up to him next and he had to push you away. You behaved aggressively not just to your wife but to a man who had nothing to do with any argument the two of you were having.’
The taxi driver gave a statement to police in which he said Mrs Goldsmith was unconscious on the floor for 12 seconds after she was punched.
Goldsmith is the uncle of Kate and Pippa Middleton and was in attendance when both got married.
He was given a 12-month community order with 20 sessions of a rehabilitation order requirement at Westminster Magistrates’ Court, after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing to assault by beating. He was also fined £5,000 and ordered to pay a £170 victim surcharge, and £85 towards prosecution costs.
The court heard Goldsmith and his wife got into a heated argument because she ‘felt she had been left alone during the course of the evening’.
Jane Humphryes, defending, said Goldsmith accepted he had lashed out outside their central London home early on October 13 as a reaction to being slapped across the face.
The court was told Goldsmith is ‘devoted’ to his wife’, and hopes that they will be able to reconcile with her aid of joint counselling, and Miss Arbuthnot heard Goldsmith had been living in a hotel before yesterday’s hearing, and hopes to return to the family home ‘only when his wife is comfortable’.
At an earlier hearing prosecutor Kate Shilton told the court Mrs Goldsmith was knocked to the ground after her husband threw what the taxi driver described as a ‘left hook’, and she was heard shouting ‘Get him off me!’ as Goldsmith approached.
A victim impact statement from Mrs Goldsmith said she had been left feeling ‘extremely anxious and very stressed, and suffering panic attacks’. She added: ‘I do not know how much more hurt and upset I can take.’
Miss Humphryes said that in the lead up to the event, her client had been on a diet and had not consumed alcohol for six weeks, which may have meant it had more effect than usual.
She also disputed Mrs Goldsmith was knocked out. But Miss Arbuthnot, interrupting her, said: ‘In terms of who is to be believed we are dealing here with two intoxicated people and a sober taxi driver. I know whose testimony I would side with.’
‘Called her a nothing’