Woman marries boss who beat her up after Christmas party

LONDON: An Oxford-educated surgeon beat up his future wife after accusing her of flirting with another doctor at an office Christmas party, a tribunal heard yesterday.

Dr Alan James, 49, held Nena Gosnell on their bed and slapped her in the face after a furious row back at home. The hearing was told that she had told him: “I should have gone back with your colleague instead.”

Gosnell, James’s medical secretary, received injuries to her knee and the left side of her face.

James was taken to a police station after the incident on December 3, 2016.

Officers also found eight ecstasy tablets in the pocket of a coat he picked up while being arrested. The father-of-two said the drugs had been bought at a music festival but he had not taken any of them.

He admitted assaulting Gosnell and said the incident was “a source of regret”. The couple have since rekindled their romance and married.

Carlo Breen, lawyer for the General Medical Council, told the fitness-to-practise hearing in Manchester: “She (Gosnell) had been drinking and so had he. They had then argued. Dr James became violent, he pinned her to the floor and punched her to her left ear.”