Lottery lout jailed for attack on wife

A LOTTERY winner who shouted “die, f ****** die” as he was strangling his wife on the floor of their home has been jailed.

Graeme Lacey, 55, was also banned from contacting her for 20 years after admitting the vicious attack.

A court heard the woman feared for her life as Lacey, who later said he had “no regrets” about his conduct, squeezed her neck with both hands.

Lacey, who shared a lottery win in 2016 as part of a workplace syndicate, was locked up for 22 months at Dundee Sheriff Court.

The engineer pleaded guilty to endangering the woman’s life during the attack with the court hearing she believed she was going to be killed.

“Your wife is still carrying the mental trauma of what you did to her and she has clearly been mentally damaged by what you did to her,” Sheriff Alastair Carmichael said.

Prosecutor Marie Irvine said the couple had returned home in the early hours when Lacey began to insult his wife.

He threw a dog bowl at her, which missed, before striking her with a pair of trainers.

Ms Irvine said: “The accused then came up to her face in an intimidating manner before the complainer said she wasn’t scared of him.

“He grabbed the witness and threw her to the floor.

“He pinned her down, straddled her and began to strangle her while saying ‘die, f ****** die.’

“She was pleading with the accused, trying to reason with him saying ‘it’s me, you’re hurting me, you’re going to kill me.’”

His wife eventually escaped and was collected in a car by her nephew, after which the police were contacted, despite her initial opposition.

Lacey, of Kingoodie Houses, Invergowrie, admitted throwing a dog bowl at the woman, throwing a pair of trainers which struck her on the body, seizing her body, pushing and pinning her to the floor before straddling her and choking her to the danger of her life on June 23 2019 on Old Dronley Road, Liff.

Lacey was jailed for 22 months and placed on a non-harassment order for the next two decades.

Sheriff Carmichael added: “You assaulted your wife by, among other things, pinning her to the ground and strangling her using both hands while shouting ‘die, f ****** die’

“Your wife was struggling to breathe. I see no alternative to a custodial sentence.”

Graeme Lacey