A Celtic football fan attacked his wife after she’d taken their children out, leaving him at home to watch the game on television in peace.
Richard Cameron was drinking at his Fraserburgh home during the Celtic v Rangers game on September 3 this year, before getting into bed at 3pm to sleep it off.
But when his wife of four years jokingly pretended to throw water over the Celtic fan, whose team had won 4-0, he turned on her in a terrifying ordeal.
At one stage, Cameron kicked the front door which his wife had been leaning against to prevent him from getting inside.
When Cameron reentered the family home, he grabbed his wife by the neck and pinned her to the stairs and later punched her head, Aberdeen Sheriff Court was told.
Fiscal depute Ruaridh McAllister said Cameron’s wife had left their Fraserburgh home with their children to allow him to watch the Celtic v Rangers football match on television.
She returned at 2.30pm and found her husband had been drinking alcohol, which they “laughed about together” before he went to bed at 3pm to sleep it off.
When his wife tried to rouse him three hours later, to say she was ordering a Chinese takeaway, he was “just making noises”.
A short time later, the woman returned to discover that Cameron had vomited on the duvet cover, causing her to “laugh and joke”.
She told her husband that “if he didn’t get up, she would soak him with water”, the court heard.
After the takeaway had arrived and Cameron was still in bed, his wife went back upstairs and filled a small bin with water.
She “jokingly went to throw it at him” and a small amount of water landed on the duvet.
“This angered the accused who then got out of bed,” the fiscal added.
Banged on door, shouting
Cameron then pushed his wife onto the bed and leaned over while shouting at her.
She pushed him out of the bedroom and ordered him to leave their home and go to his sister’s house.
The woman then called a neighbour to take the children away and asked her sister-in-law to collect her brother from the house, otherwise, she’d call the police on her husband.
“The pair continued to argue in the downstairs hallway,” the fiscal continued. “The accused then grabbed the complainer by the neck of her hoody with both hands.
“This was seen by the accused’s sister who was now in attendance and she was shouting at the accused to get off.
“The complainer ran out of the locus into the front garden and the accused followed.”
When he then started arguing with a stranger in the street, his wife ran back inside.
She “sat in front of the front door” to keep her raging husband outside, where he banged on the door and shouted for 10 minutes.
Kicked door open, punched her head
“When the banging stopped, she went to the back door to see if he had gone around the back of the house, but the accused kicked open the front door,” Mr McAllister said.
“She attempted to push the accused back out of the front door but ended up being grabbed by the neck and pinned to the stairs.”
The court heard that the struggle then moved to the garden.
“He grabbed her neck and pushed her onto the grass then punched her to the head once,” the fiscal added. “This caused a small bump to the rear of her head.”
A neighbour who saw the attack called the police and when officers arrived, they traced Cameron nearby after he had left the scene.
Request for bail refused
The father-of-three has been remanded in prison since the incident.
He appeared in the dock from custody and admitted a charge of domestic assault to injury.
Cameron’s defence agent Neil McRobert sought bail for his client but his application was refused.
Sheriff Morag McLaughlin deferred the sentencing of Cameron, of Fraserburgh but currently a prisoner at HMP Grampian in Peterhead, until later this month.
The sheriff ordered background reports and a risk assessment to be prepared.
Cameron’s suitability for The Caledonian System Men’s Programme, a rehabilitation scheme for domestic abusers, is also being assessed.
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