Woman forced to flee after drunk husband’s attack
A frightened woman fled to her neighbour’s house in the early hours after her drunken husband attacked her in the bathroom of their home.
And when Laura Meager returned to their flat with a friend, Neil Meager, who served in the armed forces and still works out, savagely assaulted her again.
Perth Sheriff Court was told that the 35-year-old grabbed his wife of 19 years by the hair and pulled her to the ground.
“He crouched over her and punched her repeatedly, both to the face and to the body,”said depute fiscal Alan Morrison.
When police arrived, they discovered blood on the floor, in the hallway and further spatters in the livingroom.
Meager, of Park Drive, Blairgowrie, narrowly escaped a jail term after he admitted attacking his wife at their home on April 8.
Instead, he was ordered to complete 275 hours of unpaid work within six months and will be supervised by a social worker for the next year.
Passing sentence, Sheriff Lindsay Foulis noted that the accused kept himself in condition and did weight training.
“During this whole incident you were up for giving your wife a beating. And you didn’t care that your neighbour, whom you had just been out with, saw what was going on.”
Alcohol wasn’t a mitigating factor and the incident merited custody.
But the accused was a first offender and that presented a“conundrum”to those passing sentence.
The sheriff imposed the Community Payback Order but warned Meager if it was breached, his“first reaction”would be to jail him.
Mr Morrison said that after the first assault, the accused’s wife ran to her neighbour who saw she was“in a distressed state and was bleeding and crying”.
Mrs Meager suffered swelling and bruising to her head, jawline, chest and body and had a cut upper lip and a painful tooth.
Solicitor David Holmes said his client was“ashamed”at his actions and when police arrived he had effectively taken full responsibility for them.
The lawyer added:“He had been drinking so much he wasn’t in a position to know what had gone on.”