Family Solicitors

A woman who attacked her husband at the breakfast table after he allegedly announced he wanted a divorce left him needing 13 stitches, a court has heard.

Julie Evans, 45, from Drybook in Gloucestershire picked up a tub of margarine and smeared her husband with it, before attacking him using toast as a weapon.

The Daily Mail reports that James Evans – now divorced from his wife – was left with injuries to his ear which required 13 stitches.

Cheltenham Magistrates’ Court heard that Mr Evans appeared at breakfast in the couple’s home one morning and said he wanted a divorce after 15 years of marriage. Mrs Evans told the court:

“He came down to breakfast and said,’ I want a divorce. Get out of this f

ing house.’

“That did annoy me and I did throw toast at him. I did put butter in his face.

“I went to wash the butter off my hands and he came to put butter on my face. I pushed him back.

“He grabbed me around the throat. I grabbed a cup to defend myself and eventually he let me go and I fell on the floor. He noticed his ear was bleeding.”

Mrs Evans also admitted that the previous day she had poured water over her husband as he slept.

Mr Evans said, however, that when he came down to breakfast on the day of the incident, he had said “Good morning” to his wife.

“She threw the toast at me. I laughed, so she grabbed a handful of butter and smeared it all over my face.

“I tried to rub the butter on her back to make her laugh. I tried to make it playful,” he told the court.

Mr Evans added that when he went to get the butter out of his hair, his wife grabbed him by the throat. He said that he had placed his hand under her chin to try and make her let go.

He said in court that he thought his wife was pulling at his hair, but was unsure because he has multiple sclerosis and this affects his sense of touch.

Mr Evans said that the couple’s 14-year-old daughter entered the kitchen and he noticed blood on the floor.

“My ear was flapping in the wind – it was in two halves,’ Mr Evans said.

“I don’t know how it got like that. I can’t remember.”

Mrs Evans – who divorced her husband following the incident – was found guilty of assault at Cheltenham Magistrates Court. She pleaded guilty to two charges of common assault on Mr Evans – including the confrontation at breakfast and the incident when she poured water on him as he slept.

She was cleared of actual bodily harm regarding Mr Evans’ ear injury.

The court ruled that, because of “growing tension” in the couple’s relationship,
Mrs Evans’ response to Mr Evans’ aggression was “in self-defence”.

Mrs Evans was fined £300 with £85 costs and a £20 victim surcharge.

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