Attacked at wedding party

A drunken operations manager viciously attacked his wife at a Perth hotel wedding reception, seizing her by the neck, pushing her and striking her on the head with his elbow.

And when 26-year-old John Lawrie was taken to Perth police headquarters, he stated: “I’ll be out soon.

“She’ll not say anything - this happens all the time. “She never says anything.” A lawyer for the accused, of Shepherd’s Wynd, Auchterarder, denied he had made such comments when he appeared at Perth Sheriff Court.

He was ordered to complete 120 hours of unpaid work within six months and will be supervised by a social worker for the next year.

He admitted assaulting his wife at the Huntingtower Hotel on July 2.

Depute fiscal Jennifer Johnson told the court that the hotel manager requested assistance around 2am to remove the accused from the venue as he was “heavily under the influence of alcohol”.

Police attended and they were informed there had been an alleged assault on the woman earlier.

CCTV images were viewed and they showed the accused grabbing his wife by the throat, shoving her and then elbowing her in the face.

Solicitor John McLaughlin said the alleged comments made by his client didn’t form any part of the charge against him.

He added: “There was significant alcohol taken.” But he had now stopped drinking. Special bail conditions had initially been imposed, banning the accused to have any contact with his wife, but they had been relaxed to allow them to celebrate their wedding anniversary together.

“He’s remorseful and it’s his intention to work hard to re-build the relationship.”

Imposing the Community Payback Order, Sheriff William Wood described it as a “sustained assault” but he was satisfied the custody threshold hadn’t been reached.

After hearing that they were now back together and there had been no further trouble, Sheriff LIndsay Foulis admonished her and she walked free from the court.