Newlywed avoids jail after attack on husband with glass and knife

A newlywed who attacked her husband with a wine glass and kitchen knife has avoided a prison sentence.

Josephine Patterson snapped amidst a boozy argument that left her partner Stephen bleeding from a neck wound and with glass embedded in the back of his head.

The couple had been married for a matter of months when an evening’s drinking saw them fall out in spectacular style.

Perth Sheriff Court was told Mr Patterson had attempted to defuse matters by going to bed but instead stumbled and fell on top of his wife.

She responded by grabbing a wine glass and smashing it over his head.

He then made matters worse by staggering to the kitchen to grab a knife and point it at her, saying “please stop hitting me”, before dropping it on the floor.

She picked it up, knocked him to the floor and then placed it against his neck, causing it to cut him.

Patterson denied the wound was deliberately inflicted, saying he had been nicked as he tried to stand.

The accused, aged 52 and of Bowling Green Road in Milnathort, admitted assaulting Mr Patterson at an address in Perth’s St Catherine’s Road on January 9 by repeatedly punching him on the body, striking him on the head with a glass and striking him on the head with a knife, to his injury.

Sheriff William Wood told her: “Clearly you and your husband don’t have difficulties to seek in your relationship.

“Alcohol has clearly been a problem for you both.”

He placed her on a community payback order requiring her to undergo 24 months of social work supervision and carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.