A pensioner with no previous convictions who spent two nights in custody for swiping her husband with a magazine has branded the prosecution “ridiculous”.
Four police officers stormed into Irene Clark’s Tayport living room after a neighbour overheard the 65-year-old andhusband James arguing over which TVprogramme to watch.
The married couple of 14 years told The Courier that police and prosecutors had “totally overreacted” and the case should never have resulted in a criminal conviction.
Mrs Clark, 65, said: “We were watching TV on the Sunday and James wanted to see some plane programme and I wanted to watch Foyle’s War. We were arguing over what to watch.
“There was a Sunday magazine lying on the edge of the chair and it was like a swipe on the top of the head. It was open, it wasn’t even folded.”
Mr Clark, 52, said: “It was like what a school teacher used to do to me in the maths class. We had settled down to watch the TV after the matter had been resolved. It was nothing untoward, but the police intervened.
“All I had on my forehead was a mark like I’d scratched a pimple. It was a paper cut.”
Mrs Clark was getting ready for bed when the officers arrived.
She said: “It was about half nine and I was in my dressing gown. The next thing we heard was bang, bang, bang at the door.
“They came barging in, there were four of them. Two took James away to a bedroom and two came in with me to the living room. The policewoman said they’d had a report of a domestic incident.
“I said yes, we had an argument and I slapped him with a paper. She said, we’ll have to take you in now.It was surrreal, I was taken into the street and put in the van and I thought ‘Is this really happening to me?’”
Mr Clark said: “They sent for paramedics for me and my wife was apprehended and handcuffed. It was a total overreaction. ”
After a night in the cells in Cupar Mrs Clark was taken to Dunfermline and did not appear in court until Tuesday afternoon.
She said: “I was put in a cell with just a blanket and lunatics shouting and screaming next door.You have no perception of time it felt like forever.
“I was taken to Dundee on the Tuesday because it was a holiday on the Monday.I had to wait in the cells there with drug addicts and didn’t get out until 6pm.”
Meanwhile, her husband was growing increasingly worried.
Mr Clark said: “I was thinking, what the heck is going on? I was very concerned for her. I phoned up continuously. I did not consider myself being a victim for getting biffed over the head with a magazine after an argument over a TV programme.”
Last week Mrs Clark was admonished at Dundee Sheriff Court after admitting striking her husband with the magazine to his injury on July 20.
Her solicitor William Boyle said: “Either the law or those applying the law have gone mad.”