A Celtic fan who attacked his wife after passing out drunk at the end of an Old Firm match has avoided a prison sentence.
Father-of-three Richard Cameron got so drunk while watching Celtic take on Rangers at his home in Fraserburgh he had to take a nap afterwards.
When his wife attempted to wake him later that evening and jokingly threatened to throw water at him he flew into a rage and assaulted her.
At one stage, the 36-year-old kicked open 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, 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.
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.
Chased wife into garden
“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 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.
“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.
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.
‘His reaction was unacceptable’
Defence agent Neil McRobert told the court that Cameron “appears with a lengthy record of previous convictions”.
“However, there are no previous convictions for domestic assault.
“Mr Cameron had been watching the match on the TV and had been consuming alcohol to excess and his wife spilt some water on him – nevertheless, his reaction was unacceptable and he acknowledges that.
“He had issues with drugs but has since overcome that and is now drug-free for three years.
“But I think it’s clear that there are some issues that Mr Cameron still has – especially his anger management.”
Sentencing Cameron, Sheriff Morag McLaughlin described his behaviour as a “total overreaction”.
She added: “But I take into account the positive steps you have taken after this most recent conviction for violence.
“The circumstances of this offence suggest to me an inappropriate overreaction to something because you were drinking alcohol.
“However, you have managed to get off drugs, so that is to your credit.”
As an alternative to a prison sentence, Sheriff Morag McLaughlin sentenced Cameron, of Marconi Terrace, Fraserburgh to a community payback order with supervision for two years.
She also ordered him to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.
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