A Perth man who slapped a woman in front of shocked bystanders tried to defend his actions in court by asking: “Have you met her? She’s a robust lesbian.”
John Bassett struck his victim so hard, it sent her glasses flying off her face.
The attack was witnessed by two council workers who ran to the woman’s aid and called police.
Perth Sheriff Court heard how Bassett, 52, antagonised the witnesses.
When told by one he should never lay his hands on a woman, he replied: “What, not even sexually?”
Bassett denied assaulting the woman – a family member – outside his home in Perth’s Kinnoull Street on December 14 2021.
He claimed he was acting in self defence after she headbutted him and “simultaneously” asked him to slap her.
Sheriff Francis Gill found him guilty.
“There is no excuse for slapping this woman, regardless of the background,” he told Bassett.
Cigarette break
The court heard from two Perth and Kinross Council employees who witnessed the slap while standing outside Pullar House on a cigarette break.
Home assessment coordinator Emma Gardiner, 32, said she heard raised voices and saw Bassett with the woman.
“She was up against a wall and he was in her face.
“She looked like a rabbit in headlights.”
Ms Gardiner said: “The male then struck the female in the face.
“Her glasses fell to the pavement.”
Admin assistant Holly Graham, 37, told the trial how Bassett “antagonised” her after the assault.
“He was trying to get a reaction out of us.
“He was making out that I was uneducated and thick. He said that she had asked him to slap her.
“I said if she asked you to jump off a cliff, would you? He said yes.
“I said you can’t lay hands on a woman, and he replied: ‘What, not even sexually?'”
Claimed victim had ‘bulging’ eyes
Taking the witness stand, unemployed Bassett said he was frightened by the woman, because she had been behaving erratically.
“I thought she was going to put my sobriety in jeopardy,” he said.
“She was sleep-deprived and on strong medication. I had told her to get a grip and she did not like that.”
He said the woman had charged towards him “with her eyes bulging” and rammed her head into his face.
He said as she did this, she told him: “Go on, f***ing slap me”.
“So I did,” he said.
When asked by fiscal depute Rebecca Kynaston if he was scared of the woman, Bassett replied: “Have you met her? She’s a robust lesbian.”
The court earlier heard the victim was in America and could not attend court to give evidence.
Fining Bassett £350, Sheriff Gill told him that he found the independent witnesses “credible and reliable”.
“I am not satisfied a case of self-defence has been proved,” he said.
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