The beaten wife of an Angus Royal Marine hurled foul abuse at a sheriff as her husband was jailed for brutally assaulting her.
Sergeant Wayne Harrison (33) was sent to prison for 15 months at Arbroath Sheriff Court on Tuesday despite pleas from his wife Lynne and her family.
Mrs Harrison, who still suffers impaired hearing from the vicious attack on January 14 last year, ran from court in tears as Sheriff Peter Paterson handed down the sentence.
The court heard how Harrison battered his wife’s head into a wardrobe before biting and throttling her in a vicious three-hour assault at RM Condor, Arbroath, where he serves with 45 Commando.
Depute fiscal Hazel Anderson revealed the marine had followed his wife to the toilet in a sports bar on the base, suspecting her of texting another man.
After confronting her, Harrison escorted his wife to his room around 8pm where he began questioning her about who she had been in contact with.
Ms Anderson said: “He pushed her off the bed, causing her to strike her head on wardrobes. He straddled her, placing his hands on her throat. She shouted and screamed but then blacked out due to the restriction on her throat due to him pressing it.
“She woke up with the accused placing his hand over her mouth and nose. He picked her up by the leg and threw her off the bed on to the floor then slapped her on the face and shouted: ‘I’m going to kill you’.
“She then felt him bite the back of her head and he then placed his hands over her mouth and nose to the point where she lost consciousness.
“When she woke he said: ‘Lucky I didn’t kill you’.”
Harrison and his wife had been in a relationship for five years and married for three prior to the assault.
As the attack went on, he slapped her on the side of her face four times, causing her to hear ringing in her ear.
Around 11.30pm Harrison went to the bathroom and his wife took the opportunity to leave the room and run back to the sergeants’ mess.
She told two marines what had happened and they noticed she was in a distressed state.
When questioned by his colleagues, Harrison told them: ‘It’s between man and wife’ and that his wife ‘knows how to push his buttons’.
Mrs Harrison was left with impaired hearing and suffered extensive bruising to her left eye and ear, as well as her jaw, right hand, neck, left shoulder and arm, and right calf.
Harrison initially denied the scale of the attack to police but eventually pleaded guilty to an indictment relating to the incident on January 8 this year.
Originally from Chirton, North Shields, Tyneside, the celebrated marine is now expected to be dismissed from the forces.
In 2009 he received special praise on his return from duty in Afghanistan, where he discovered a Taliban ammunition store and survived a shrapnel grenade to the head.
Defence agent Ian Flynn said Mrs Harrison did not want to see her husband jailed and told the court her parents had written a letter urging he be spared.
He added: “Mrs Harrison is in court along with her parents and she wishes their relationship to continue. What is clear is that, if he is sentenced to custody, he will suffer greatly and she will suffer greatly.”
Sheriff Paterson questioned defence claims that Harrison was an exemplary marine and sentenced him to 15 months, with six months’ supervision upon his release.
He said: “I find myself with a detailed report in which, apart from issues about whether you were entirely candid, I see comments which concern me.
“This was a serious, sustained assault and irrespective of what your wife says that is something the court can’t ignore.”