Former Dundee FC owner Jimmy Marr has been cleared of throwing a drink over a 75-year-old woman before punching her husband and headbutting her friend when they intervened.
The incident occurred at the High Corner Bar in Dundee’s Kinghorn Road on May 30 this year – one of 22 pubs owned by Jimmy Marr’s company.
Dundee Sheriff Court heard a charity fundraiser was being held that night to raise funds for Macmillan Cancer nurses after one of the pub’s regulars was hit by the disease.
Marr was accused of losing the rag when drinkers in the pub asked his wife to stop dancing on a table, spilling booze on them.
Witnesses claimed he had said “she can do what she f****** wants, this is my pub” – before launching the attacks.
But Marr, supported by his wife and a friend, insisted in their evidence that one of his accusers had become aggressive – and Marr had simply intervened to throw him out of the pub.
A sheriff found Marr not guilty and told him: “There are elements that don’t fit together and I can’t be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Giving evidence during the two-day trial, Margaret Morrell, 75, told how the incident had kicked off when Marr’s wife, Karen, had gone to stand on their table to dance.
She said Mrs Marr had been holding a glass of wine and was spilling it on people – and asked her to stop.
She said: “Mr Marr came across and said ‘she can do what she f****** wants, this is my pub’.
“He threw a drink over me and said ‘get the f*** out of my pub’.”
Mrs Morrell said Marr then threw another drink over her.
Her husband, Patrick, 65, told a trial he was outside smoking when the rammy started and went back in to investigate.
He said he was then punched by Marr – causing him to fall to the ground.
William Dunn, 60, a friend of Mr and Mrs Morrell, said it had “been a good evening until Marr threw a drink over Margaret”.
He added: “He said if we didn’t like it we could ‘f*** off’.
“I said that was out of order.
“He said ‘Out of order?’ – then headbutted me.”
Marr, giving evidence in his own defence, said he had turned up with his wife and two friends after the manager had convinced him it would be “good for the pub for the owner to show face.”
He said he had gone on the microphone to pledge to double whatever funds were raised for Macmillan before the incident occurred.
But Marr denied pouring drinks over Mrs Morrell or attacking the two men.
Instead he said he had intervened when one of the men had pushed his wife’s leg as she went to stand on a table to dance.
Marr told the court: “I went over to see if she was OK.
“One of them said it was out of order then got aggressive and went head to head with me.
“I grabbed him, birled him round and put him out.
“There was then a lot of pushing and shoving and I ended up on the floor.”
Marr, 55, of South Drive, Liff, by Dundee, denied three charges of assault and one of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner on summary complaint.
Sheriff Alistair Carmichael earlier ruled there was no case to answer in respect of the threatening and abusive behaviour charge.
Fiscal depute Susan Ruta said the Crown’s witnesses were all “credible and reliable” and urged the sheriff to convict Marr.
But Jim Laverty, defending, said: “The defence evidence as led here raises a reasonable doubt in this particular case.”
Sheriff Carmichael found Marr not guilty of both charges.