Husband-and-wife court double act

A husband and wife appeared in the same West Lothian court in succession yesterday charged with assaulting each other.

Suzanne Hughes, 44, was first in the dock for the unusual “Mr and Mrs” session at Livingston Sheriff Court.

The former child carer admitted giving her husband a bloody nose during a drunken Halloween party punch-up on 28 October last year.

Her partner John Hughes, 47, was up moments later, charged with pushing his wife and causing her false teeth to come flying out in an incident more than six years ago.

Both denied the offences, but pleaded guilty to amended charges on the morning of their trials.

Mrs Hughes was fined £300. Her husband, from Whitburn in West Lothian, was admonished and dismissed.

Neither person had been in trouble with the courts before, their lawyers said.

The couple left the building together after Sheriff Douglas Kinloch was told they now hoped to sort out their relationship after bail conditions preventing them from seeing each other were removed.

Procurator Fiscal Andrew Richardson confirmed an allegation Mrs Hughes had knocked her husband unconscious during the assault had been dropped from the charge.

He said the couple’s son Andrew Muir had become involved in the altercation.