Kate Middleton’s uncle branded a nasty drunk for punching wife in row
KATE Middleton’s millionaire uncle Gary Goldsmith was branded a “nasty drunk” in court yesterday.
But he was spared jail despite having publicly punched his wife Julie-Anne to the ground.
Senior district judge Emma Arbuthnot instead gave Goldsmith a one-year community order and fined him £5,000 for the vicious left hook.
Sentencing him at Westminster magistrates’ court, she said: “You were acting like a nasty drunk, not the happy drunk your friends or you describe.
“Your wife slapped you. You responded not by pushing her away but by one strike to the face which was so hard you knocked her to the floor.”
Goldsmith, 52, is the younger brother of the Duchess of Cambridge’s mother Carole.
He called his fourth wife a “nothing” and a “whore” as they rowed on their way to their home near Oxford Street last month from a London charity event.
The pair had been arguing so ferociously that taxi driver Daniel Shepherd felt it unsafe to leave the scene after dropping them off.
He witnessed Goldsmith – who made a fortune setting up a computer firm then selling it for £17million – respond to a slap from his wife with the punch.
It sent her flying to the ground where she hit her head and was briefly knocked unconscious.
He did not rush to her aid and Gary Goldsmith and Julie-Anne on the night he later attacked her she had to pull herself up using railings, the court heard.
Mrs Goldsmith, 47, said in a victim impact statement that the attack has left her feeling a “prisoner in my own home”.
She was particularly distressed by being unable to see Goldsmith’s 15-year-old daughter from a previous relationship.
“I haven’t been able to talk to or see my step-daughter which has been very difficult and very upsetting as we are very close,” she said.
“I am not going out. I find it hard to face people. This whole incident has caused me a lot of stress and anxiety.
“I don’t know how much more upset and hurt I can take.”
However, the court heard the couple are trying for a reconciliation and the prosecution did not seek a restraining order.
Besides community service, Judge Arbuthnot ordered Goldsmith to attend 20 rehabilitation sessions to tackle his “loutish behaviour”.
He was also ordered to pay a £170 victim surcharge and £85 costs as well as the fine.
Goldsmith admitted assault by beating at an early hearing.
Jane Humphryes QC, defending, said “He momentarily lost his self-control when he struck out, much to his great shame.
“He is exceedingly remorseful. He is devastated by the events. And all the more because it involved his wife, to whom he is devoted.”