TV MasterChef contestant shoved wife down stairs
A TV chef who has cooked for the Queen has been found guilty of attacking and injuring his wife by pushing her down a flight of stairs.
Former MasterChef: The Professionals contestant Lewis Donegan was arrested after police received a 999 call from his distressed wife Sinead.
Mrs Donegan, 32, told a court she ended up having a violent row with her husband after she had been drinking at their home in
Inchture, Perthshire. She told a trial at Perth Sheriff Court that the tension between the couple led to her following her husband upstairs and the argument became a screaming match on the landing.
She said: ‘There was screaming about something. I can’t remember what the disagreement was about. Then there was a shove and I ended up downstairs.’
Mrs Donegan told the trial she dialled 999 but hung up. She said: ‘It was quite a serious thing to phone the police and I just didn’t want any trouble.’
The court heard that when officers arrived at the house around 11pm, there were clear signs of a disturbance and Mrs Donegan appeared to be distressed.
PC Sean Robertson, 28, said she was also showing visible bruising and when she was shown pictures of the injuries in court, she confirmed they had been sustained as a result of the fall. Donegan, head tutor and chef at the Dundee Cooking Academy, was arrested and told officers: ‘She pushed me and I pushed her back. I shoved her and she fell down the stairs.’
He told the police during an interview that he felt ‘terrible’ about injuring his wife but the court was told that the couple had since reconciled.
Donegan, 34, was found guilty of domestic assault on March 10 but was cleared of a second charge of attacking his wife by striking her on the head a few days earlier.
Solicitor Theo Finlay, defending, said: ‘He has no previous convictions and has never been in trouble before. It is fair to say there will never be a repetition of this.’
Sheriff Neil Bowie told Donegan: ‘It may not have been your intention to cause your wife to fall down the stairs but I am satisfied it was your intention to assault her.’
Sentence was deferred for Donegan to be of good behaviour.