A woman has told how she stabbed her abusive partner with a kitchen knife after he tried to throttle her while she was heavily pregnant.
Anthony Muir said to his girlfriend “do you want to die?” as he held her down on a kitchen worktop and leaned onto her baby bump.
She begged him to stop, before grabbing a knife and plunging it into his arm when he charged at her.
Muir, 56, is now behind bars after a jury found him guilty of assaulting his ex on multiple occasions over a near-nine-year period.
He denied ever assaulting the woman and tried to persuade jurors she and members of her family were lying under oath.
After three days of often harrowing evidence at Perth Sheriff Court this week, jurors took just over two hours to convict Muir.
He was found guilty of assaulting his then-partner at addresses in Auchtermuchty and Dunfermline between May 2001 and December 2009.
Some of the attacks happened when she was pregnant, the court heard.
Muir, from Auchtermuchty, repeatedly seized her by the throat, restricted her breathing and repeatedly pushed, punched and kicked her.
The jury also found him guilty of assaults on three young children.
Grabbed by the throat
Muir’s ex-partner said they met at a friend’s house in the summer of 2001.
Despite his eruptions of violence, they stayed together as a couple for nearly a decade, although never living together under the same roof.
“In the beginning, he would come up to my house and knock on my door with bags of sweets and chocolates,” the woman told the trial.
She said they occasionally got into “heated” arguments when he refused to go home at the end of the evening.
Fiscal depute Lora Apostalova asked if these rows ever “escalated” during the early stages of the relationship.
The woman said things turned physical during an argument outdoors, with an assault lasting “five to ten minutes” after she returned from a shopping trip in Dundee.
“He casually walked up to me and grabbed me by the throat.
“I tried to push him away with as much strength as I could manage.
“He leaned me backwards over a fence. It was very painful.”
Asked by Ms Apostalova if she was able to breathe, she replied: “To start with I couldn’t, because it was so quick and hard when he grabbed me.”
She said she was left with “red finger marks” on her neck.
Attacks while pregnant
The abuse continued while she was heavily pregnant.
She said during an argument he again grabbed her by the throat and pressed her against a wall, leaving her “unable to breathe.”
Muir let go when the woman’s sister entered the room and challenged him.
The trial heard that on another occasion, Muir grabbed her by the throat for a third time and pushed her down onto a kitchen worktop.
“He was leaning over me, onto my tummy.
“That really upset me.
“I tried to wriggle out from under him and he let me go. I was on the floor of the kitchen.
“I stood up and we were facing each other.
“I saw a knife on the drawing board.”
Stabbed tormentor
She said she told him: “If you come near me, I’ll stab you with that knife.”
“He laughed at me.
“I said: ‘I mean it, please don’t come near me.’
“He was saying things that were horrible. My stomach was like a hard ball.”
Muir told her: “You better use it” and added: “Do you want to die?”
She told the court: “He charged at me. The knife struck him in his right arm.”
She said Muir began “jumping up and down.”
He told her: “You better get me to a hospital.”
The woman told the court: “I couldn’t see any blood.
“He was just holding his arm. I didn’t know if he was tricking me.”
Under cross-examination by defence counsel James McCrone, the woman accepted she had “stabbed” her partner, after initially saying she had “cut” him.
Denied ever assaulting woman
Giving evidence on the last day of his trial, Muir, of Pittmedden Wynd, denied he had ever assaulted his ex.
“She was doing the dishes and she just burled round and before I knew it there was a knife sticking into my elbow..
“The other end was coming out of the other side.”
After jurors delivered their verdict, Sheriff Paul Reid told Muir: “You have been convicted of a number of serious offences over a prolonged period of time.
“Having been convicted, you no longer benefit from the presumption of innocence. You will be remanded in custody.”
Members of Muir’s family, sitting in the public benches, erupted in tears as he was led away in handcuffs.
He will be brought back to court for sentencing on March 9.
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