A fed-up wife dialled 999 to report her husband to the police for talking too much.
Marius Larion’s constant “yakking” drove his wife Romana to make the emergency call to the police, a court heard.
Romana Larion was in the middle of the call to police staff when she continued to be interrupted by her husband’s incessant chatter.
She nudged him away with her leg because of the disruption he was causing, and Larion responded by kicking her in the stomach.
Larion, 50, Balvaird Place, Perth, was fined £600 after he admitted assaulting his wife by kicking her on the body on November 4.
Solicitor Nicky Brown, defending, told Perth Sheriff Court: “She was on the telephone to the police because she said he wouldn’t shut up.
“She kicked him but not as an aggressive act. He was speaking to her while she was on the phone to police so she used her foot to push him away.
“She kicked him and he kicked her back. He retaliated and she said to the police on the phone: ‘He kicked me.’
“Her son is not aware she is on the phone when he hears her say that, so he phones the police.
“Mr Larion’s position then is that things have got ’way out of control.
“He removes himself to his brother’s house. He accepts that to retaliate is never acceptable. That could have led to an escalation of violence that isn’t acceptable in the family unit.
“They have been together 22 years. His wife operates a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to his behaviour. She basically couldn’t get him to shut up.
“He was in her face and wouldn’t shut up so she got on the phone to the police. When she was on the phone, he still carried on.
“She reacts with her foot to say ‘Get out of my way’, and he should have left at that stage.”
Mrs Brown said Larion worked away from home as a £600-per-week tower-crane operator and said he sent the majority of it to the mother-of-three.
Fiscal depute Michael Sweeney told the court: “They had been in the car when they began an argument and that carried on throughout the day.”
Sheriff Lindsay Foulis said: “You can see the situation. She is on the phone and he is yakking away so she does something as if to say ‘Shut up, I’m on the phone’.
“Then he responds the way he does. He effectively responds in kind. I have considerable reservations about the circumstances here. I may be wrong.
“The situation is that it would appear that you and your wife are both of a mind to play down this incident.”
