An abusive husband nearly drowned his wife in a Perthshire loch and told her: “Do you want to live or die?”
Twisted Paul Brown held his partner’s head underwater during a terrifying assault near his home on the banks of Loch Tummel.
Catriona Watson-Brown thought she was being murdered as she swallowed water and struggled to breathe.
Afterwards, instead of showing remorse, Brown grabbed his distraught wife and bit her twice on the face.
Brown, a self-employed heating engineer for the Strathtummel estate, appeared at Perth Sheriff Court and admitted endangering his wife’s life in a domestically-aggravated assault on April 18.
The 59-year-old former BBC surveyor will spend Hogmanay behind bars as he awaits sentence.
Jekyll and Hyde
The couple met while both were working for the broadcasting corporation in the 1990s.
They moved from their home in England to Strathtummel, near Pitlochry, in 2011.
Fiscal depute Lora Apostolova told the court: “The relationship was described by Mrs Watson-Brown as great.
“She says he is a kind, loving and generous man.
“However, he has moments when he loses his temper and is particularly malicious and nasty.
“She compared him to a Jekyll and Hyde character.”
Heavy rock music warning
Ms Apostolova said that in early 2022, Brown sulked for about a week when he found out his wife and her family had booked a meal at an Italian restaurant without consulting him.
“The accused decided to completely ignore his wife for the remainder of that week.
“This behaviour became frequent and when this happened they lived almost separate lives.
“Mrs Watson-Brown was emailed by her husband on the morning of April 18, asking about certain expenditures on their joint account.
“The fiscal depute said she replied and continued on her day as normal.
“At about 7.30pm, Mrs Watson-Brown was sitting in her office at home.
“She could hear the accused was outside in the carport.
“She noted he was listening to heavy rock music, which she knows he listens to when he feels riled about something.”
Later, Mrs Watson-Brown became aware her husband had walked into the room and was standing behind her.
“She turned around and, without saying anything, he beckoned her with one finger.
“Although she was nervous, she went with him.”
Brown led his wife outside, down a path that leads to the lochside.
Lochside terror
The fiscal depute said: “He went right up to the water’s edge and his wife caught up and stood beside him.
“He then took a tight hold of Mrs Watson-Brown’s arm and start walking purposefully into the water.
“He appeared calm.
“The accused turned his wife round and got hold of her with both arms.
“She tried to shake him off but he was strong.
“The next thing she knew, she was pushed backwards so she was effectively lying on her back in the water.
“The accused then pushed her head completely under, so she was immersed and could not breathe.
“Water was going into her mouth.
“She was petrified and believed she was going to die.”
‘Do you want to live or die?’
Ms Apostolova said the wife struggled but could not get away until he pulled her up.
Brown shouted at his wife: “Do you want to live or die?”
He repeated this several times while he shook her.
“Mrs Watson-Brown was spluttering and tried to say ‘live’ but could not get the words out,” the prosecutor said.
He pushed her backwards again and told her: “If you’re going to live with me, you better behave yourself.”
The fiscal depute told the court: “The accused then let go of her and walked back to the shore.”
‘You deserved this’
Back at the house, Brown told her: “You had this coming. You deserved this.”
When she said he nearly killed him, Brown replied: “If I wanted to kill you I would have. This was just a threat.”
Ms Apostolova said: “The accused sat down beside his wife and started talking to her.
“He then seized her by the shoulders, pulled her close and bit her on the right cheek twice in quick succession.”
Later that night, Mrs Watson-Brown went outside under the pretence that she was walking the dog.
Out of his earshot, she reported her husband to police.
When she returned, Brown told her that he hated her and made threats to hurt her with a knife.
“As he said that, he drew his finger across his wife’s throat,” said the fiscal depute.
“He then went outside to sit in the car by himself.”
Police arrived that night and Brown was arrested.
‘Complex’ background
As well as the assault, Brown admitted behaving in a threatening or abusive manner and a separate assault on a teenager.
Solicitor Scott Jones, defending, said: “Mr Brown has been remanded for some time waiting for this case to resolve.
“He tells me that he has been visited several times by the complainer, which shows that there is an understanding there, if not necessarily a reconciliation.
“It is not altogether as black and white as this may appear.
“There is always two sides to every story and I don’t say that lightly.”
Sheriff William Wood told Brown: “Plainly, these are very serious charges, although I acknowledge there may well be a different and complex background to it.
“Without knowing a bit more about that, I am not going to be able to sentence you today.
“But I am not going to let you out just yet.”
Sentence was deferred for background reports until January 19 and Brown remains remanded.
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