A former military wife accused of a catalogue of abusive behaviour against her ex-husband has told her trial she was “gaslighted” by him for years.
Rebecca Egerton-Jones claimed Military Police Sergeant Michael “Bomber” Harris assaulted her and had multiple affairs while they were at Leuchars Army Base.
The 48-year-old, a former Military Police Officer who helped investigate the Bloody Sunday bombing, is on trial at Perth Sheriff Court, accused of a near year-long course of conduct that caused 40-year-old Sgt Harris fear or alarm.
She denies the charge.
Asked by solicitor Ian Houston if she had ever behaved improperly towards her husband or his colleagues, she said: “No. That might be surprising, given what he’s done, but it’s not in my nature to behave like that.”
Infidelity
Earlier this week, Sgt Harris told jurors he had two affairs while he was with Egerton-Jones.
She claimed in her evidence there were “definitely” five extra-marital lovers.
Egerton-Jones told the court he cheated on her in 2006 – before they were married – when he was Germany and she was on maternity leave.
“He wrote me a letter,” she said.
“He said he was in love with someone else and he wanted to be with her, not me.”
Asked about an alleged second affair with a psychiatric nurse, which Sgt Harris told the trial he had made up to try and persuade his wife to dump him, she said: “To this day, I think he probably did (have the affair).
“I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt.”
She said the couple patched things up again but added he cheated on her in 2014 while he was touring Kabul.
Egerton-Jones said she was sent screenshots of about 3,000 text messages from a fourth woman, confirming they had been together in 2017 and 2018.
“He kept denying it and denying it, and then he just said: ‘Well, yeah’.”
Egerton-Jones said it was an “educated guess” he was cheating on her with his current wife – something Sgt Harris refuted during the trial.
Mr Houston asked: “Despite these affairs, you tried to keep the marriage going?”
She replied: “Yes. I believe when you stand before God and give your vows, you mean it.”
Gaslighting claim
Asked if – apart from the infidelity – Sgt Harris was otherwise okay, she said: “Not really.
“He was a very imposing person.
“He was constantly reminding me that he was much bigger than me and that I was much weaker and I couldn’t fight him off.
“He controlled everything.”
Egerton-Jones denied assaulting her then husband but claimed he slammed her against a doorway and held her there, before picking her up “by the neck” and swinging her.
“I was trying to get him off me,” she said.
“Somehow the buttons came off his shirt.”
Asked by fiscal depute Joanne Ritchie if she reported the incident to police, she said: “I talked to a fellow member of the military police and he told me he didn’t want to get involved.”
She added: “I was told in no uncertain terms would anyone believe me.
“I’ve gone through years of being gaslighted by my husband.
“He wore me down to think I was a worthless person.
“I went from a good career in the army to only being good enough to wipe down tables in a caravan park.”
Topless photo
She told how she saw an image of a topless woman on her husband’s laptop but denied she sent it to the woman’s father.
Asked about allegations she refused to let him attend a quiz night with workmates, she said he invited her to go but she did not want to attend because of “bad blood” between her and a former colleague.
“He has a vendetta against me,” she said of the ex-workmate. “He absolutely hated me.”
She urged her husband to go to the quiz and denied that she attended later that night with her workmates from SpecSavers.
Missing husband
Egerton-Jones said there was nothing to suggest anything was wrong on the morning her husband left her “without warning”.
“He had been intimat, and we were in bed with a cup of tea,” she said.
“I got up and got dressed. There was no reason for me to imagine what he was about to do.”
Her husband was not home when she returned from work that evening.
His mobile was turned off or its battery had died and the police station where he worked was in darkness.
She tried calling workmates and went to the gym – “his second home” – but there was still no trace.
In the early hours, she called Police Scotland and reported him missing.
The next day, she went to his office and was told by a colleague: “Your husband has started divorce proceedings and he wants nothing to do with you.”
She said: “I did lose my temper a little bit, which I think was reasonable in the circumstances.
“I told him: ‘You’re all the same, you lot, you’re closing ranks together. It’s disgusting’.”
Egerton-Jones said she loved her job but took voluntary redundancy in 2014 because she wanted to spend more time with family.
On day two of her trial, prosecutors withdrew an allegation she had induced her then-husband to fit a tracking app on his phone.
The length of the alleged conduct was also amended to from July 1 2018, to July 31 the following year.
The trial before Sheriff William Wood continues.
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