A country estate manager launched a vicious attack on her husband because she blamed him for their dogs’ deaths.
Elizabeth Clark, whose address was given as Home Farm, Rattray, will learn her fate next month after she admitted repeatedly kicking her husband Calum on the head and face after a row spiralled into violence.
The 52-year-old appeared at Peterhead Sheriff Court yesterday and pleaded guilty to the brutal assault, which left Mr Clark permanently disfigured.
The court heard that Clark, an estate manager at Rattray Estates, saw red after learning two of the collies that worked the farm had died on June 2.
She had asked her husband, a farm manager, not to take the dogs out because of the stifling temperatures outside but he had gone out anyway.
The pair had been at a barbecue and returned home following an argument after hearing one of the animals had died.
The argument escalated when they got back home and learned that another of the dogs had perished.
The court heard that Clark had knocked a glass candle holder on to the kitchen floor and when her husband bent down to pick up the shards she began kicking him in the head.
He attempted to protect himself but his wife then kicked his face before a relative stopped her, and police and the ambulance service were called.
Mr Clark sustained cuts to his face which led to scarring near his left eye, and damage to his tear duct and eye lid which may require surgery.
Defence agent Stuart Flowerdew told the court that Clark had urged her husband not to take the sheep dogs to the field he was working on because the surrounding trees made it “airless”.
Mr Flowerdew said the conditions were so tough that all three dogs became ill from heat exhaustion.
He said that the couple heard the initial news and later that night Mrs Clark’s frustration had boiled over partly because she had been drinking.
The pair then returned home and discovered that a second animal had succumbed to the heat.
Mr Flowardew said: “My client was extremely upset and felt like an unnecessary incident had happened.”
The solicitor then told the court that a third dog had later died.
He said that Clark had been unable to live at the farm since the incident but said her husband was happy for her to return to their house.
Mr Flowerdew added: “It was a very serious assault but it’s not off the back of a domestic incident that’s been brewing between them for some time.
“It had a very emotional and specific background,” he added.
Sheriff Christine McCrossan deferred sentence on Clark to find out whether her husband required surgery and also to allow reports to be prepared.
She said: “I appreciate there has been a very extreme background to this but there was an extreme reaction as well.”
