Poster girl war widow is charged with assault against husband No 2
A WAR widow campaigner who became a poster girl for soldiers’ bereaved relatives appeared in court yesterday accused of assaulting her second husband.
Christina schmid, 49, pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault by beating Adam Plumb, 41, and a woman who cannot be named for legal reasons.
Magistrates in Newton Abbey, devon, heard police were called to a disturbance at schmid’s £1.5million eight-bed home in the village of Ugborough on september 17 last year.
schmid was granted unconditional bail until her trial on October 15. she became a poster woman for bereaved relatives of service personnel after her first husband staff sergeant Olaf ‘Oz’ schmid died while defusing a taliban bomb in Afghanistan in 2009.
He was just 13 when he met the 17-year-old schmid, who was on holiday in his home town of Mylor, Cornwall.
they married in 2007 and planned to leave their home in Harestock, Winchester, to move back to Cornwall.
sgt schmid was honoured with a military funeral at truro Cathedral, at which commanding officers called him ‘a soldier of the very highest calibre’. Writing in the daily Mail after his death, schmid said: ‘I felt as if my heart had been ripped out of my body.
‘Olaf schmid, to give him his full name, was not only my husband but my soulmate, my best friend and my future. I knew I’d be grieving for him for the rest of my life.’
the mother of two campaigned for better pensions for war widows, higher salaries for those in the Armed forces and called on politicians to ‘fight as hard as Olaf did’ for peace.
Her work led her to meet with then prime minister david Cameron and she became a key player in his decision to enshrine the Military Covenant into law in 2011.
this established the nation’s legal duty of care to servicemen and their families, backed up by a £50million package.
In 2010, schmid met the late Queen at a private ceremony at Buckingham Palace where she received the George Cross on behalf of her husband. He had neutralised 64 devices during his five-month tour and had been posthumously awarded the award.
In 2012, schmid found love once again with Mark Clarke, another serving member of the Armed forces, telling the world she had ‘Oz’s blessing’.
the pair posed for a lavish photoshoot with Hello! magazine to announce their relationship. However the couple chose to go their separate ways in 2019.
One year later, schmid married her second husband Mr Plumb a property developer and father of one.
schmid confirmed she is divorcing Mr Plumb.
‘Campaigned for servicemen’