A man has been convicted of punching his wife during an argument at a hotel despite her efforts to convince the court it was an accident.
John Menzie left his then-girlfriend Karen with a bruise to her eye after the altercation, which began when they were visiting the Rewind Festival on July 27.
Perth Sheriff Court heard the pair left the festival after arguing and returned to the Isle of Skye Hotel on Perth’s Dundee Road.
Soon after, receptionist Gail Cooper heard a heated argument coming from their room, which was directly above the office in which she was working.
She and a guest from the room above went to investigate and found Mrs Menzie with the injury to her face.
Ms Cooper said Mrs Menzie pleaded with her not to involve the police, who had been called by the receptionist’s colleague.
She said: “The lady came towards me and said, ‘I’m not stupid enough to stay with him. I’ve got someone coming for me. Please don’t call the police.’
“Her right eye was swollen and there was a cut above it. It was either a cut or a bruise. It wasn’t pouring with blood but there was a mark there.”
Mrs Menzie said she had told the receptionist: “I’m not stupid enough to stay with him if he’s abusing me.”
She insisted her 49-year-old husband, whom she has married since the incident, caught her face accidentally as they were both talking with their hands in an animated fashion.
She claimed she had a tendency to “bruise very, very easily” and said the fellow guest who had come to the door of their room had verbally abused her.
The qualified nurse said: “It was something and nothing. We had raised voices and hands waving about. There was a slight accident where John hit me with his hand.
“John hit me by accident. I know John and I know he would never hurt me.”
Sheriff Fiona Tait was not convinced by Mrs Menzie’s evidence, however, and found her husband guilty of assault.
She deferred sentence on Menzie, of St Columba’s Garden’s, Dundee, for six months for good behaviour.