A JEALOUS wife blamed a cat for a series of wounds on her husband’s nose, hand and arm, after she attacked him with a kitchen knife in a rage over another woman.
Mairita Gaikniece also told police the assault was a “play fight” with her partner after a drinking session erupted into violence at a friend’s house in Forfar, where the 36-year-old had been angered to find the other woman there.
Gaikniece was placed on a five-month deferred sentence at Forfar Sheriff Court yesterday.
She was warned by a Sheriff Kevin Veal that her fate rests on her behaviour during that time.
Gaikniece, of Goosecroft, Forfar, admitted a charge of assaulting her husband, Juris, at a house on Glenogil Terrace on September 29 last year by lunging at him, struggling with him, striking him on the face and repeatedly striking him on the hand and arm with a knife, all to his injury.
Depute fiscal Hannah Kennedy said the incident happened after the couple, who have been together for 15 years and were married three years ago, had been drinking at their own home before going to a friend’s house.
“Everything seemed to be going well until an argument broke out between two other parties,” she said.
“This flared up an argument about relationships between the accused and her partner.”
The court heard Gaikniece then lunged at her husband with the knife and in the struggle she cut his face, before inflicting half a dozen small puncture wounds on his hand after he raised his arm to protect himself.
The man escaped from the house and ran straight to Forfar Police Station to report the attack. Officers then traced Gaikniece, who had bloodstains on her jacket.
“When questioned she suggested it was a play fight, something her and her husband often did,” Ms Kennedy said.
“She said ‘It was just a joke’ and when asked how her husband had come by his injuries said, ‘I don’t know, maybe the cat’. She said the reason behind it was a pique of jealousy.”
Defence agent Jennifer Strachan told the court the couple’s relationship was now back on track after they had worked through their differences over the issue of the other woman.
She said they had consumed a high level of alcohol prior to the fall-out, a feature of their life and something they are also trying to address.
“She’s horrified at the action that she took,” Miss Strachan added.
Placing her on a low-tariff structured deferred sentence until June 13, Sheriff Veal told Gaikniece: “The libel of a knife has given this matter rather more prominence because although the injuries were superficial, the potential was there for this to be very serious.
“The purpose of this is for her to be of good behaviour and to engage with the social work department with regard to alcohol issues.
“How she behaves and progresses over the next few months will be central to the resolution of this case,” the sheriff said.
gbrown@thecourier.co.uk