A community figure who admitted posting a bizarre explicit message about her ex-husband in the kitchen window of their former marital home has “suffered a very public fall from grace”.
Wendy Law had downed a bottle of wine when she put the sign up in her Brechin house, alongside a loofah which the sexually graphic message related to.
The sign made an allegation regarding her ex-husband Mark Law, who she separated from at the beginning of this year, but when an ex-partner of his spotted the sign he took a photograph of it and the matter was reported to police.
Law, 63, who previously admitted displaying the offensive message in the window of the house at Eastmill Brae Cottages in Brechin on June 3, returned to Forfar Sheriff Court on Thursday following the preparation of social work reports.
Sheriff Kevin Veal continued the case until February 28 for Law to be of good behaviour, and requested further details of her financial situation be presented to the court at that time.
Defence agent Michael Boyd said the offence was triggered after Mrs Law had returned home from England to discover her husband had removed a number of angels from the property.
Mr Boyd said: “Quite unusually for her, she consumed a bottle of wine. She has the occasional drink but alcohol is not an issue and as a result of the effects of that, she then put the notice in the window.”
The court previously heard the sign and loofah related to alleged sexual practices of the accused’s estranged spouse.
“When she woke up around 6.30am she took the sign straight down but between times Mr Law’s former partner had seen it and he attended and took a photo,” added the agent.
Mr Boyd said his client had been on the planning committee of Brechin Community Council but had been asked to give up that post because of the offence and had subsequently formally resigned her position on the body.
“She is almost at the point of absolute destitution and had to enter into a trust deed, which has just come to an end,” he said.
“She has had a very public fall from grace, there is no doubt about that,” said the sheriff. “However, this matter does have a public dimension and that is the reason why I would not have been able to accede to the request for an absolute discharge.
“I accept that the marriage has gone wrong but regardless of what one person thinks about their spouse it is never an excuse for what she did on this occasion.
“Relationships break down and people should deal with that in an appropriate and mature way.”