A MONTROSE woman who jumped into the River South Esk in the early hours of Sunday morning did so after her husband had been arrested for assaulting her, it emerged at Arbroath Sheriff Court yesterday.

Maybeth McIntosh (39), of Mount Avenue, appeared from custody before Sheriff Norrie Stein and admitted committing a breach of the peace on Sunday by conducting herself in a disorderly manner, climbing on to the New Bridge and jumping into the river, to the alarm of the lieges.

Minutes before her appearance, her husband, Graeme McIntosh (32), took his place in the dock and admitted assaulting his wife on Saturday at their home address, punching her on the face twice and pushing her, causing her to fall, all to her injury.

Depute fiscal Keith Robertson told the court that Mrs McIntosh’s actions had led to 21 emergency personnel being called out on Sunday.

He said an anonymous call had been received by police at around 1.45 am to say that Mrs McIntosh was sitting on the bridge, telling passers-by that she was going to throw herself into the water.

“She was requesting that her husband was brought from custody to the bridge and if that didn’t happen she would throw herself from the bridge,” said Mr Robertson.

“She was asked to come down but refused. At that stage it was not believed that she would jump into the water but as the police tried to speak to her the accused continued to climb higher on the parapet.”

Mr Robertson said a six-member fire crew, a five-member coastguard unit, two ambulance personnel, three members of the inshore lifeboat and five police officers were at the scene.

Mrs McIntosh began to throw personal items down from the bridge, and at that point, the fiscal said, the emergency services believed she would throw herself into the water.

Mr Robertson said she became “increasingly agitated” which seemed to be because her request that her husband be brought to the scene had not been met.

After jumping from the bridge at 2.30 am, Mrs McIntosh was located by the lifeboat crew and received medical treatment at the harbour and at the town’s minor injuries unit before being arrested.

Mr Robertson added that the medical opinion was that she “did not have suicidal tendencies and basically jumped into the water as she was not getting her own way.”

Defence agent Bob Bruce said his client had been suffering from depression and said, “Clearly whatever her aims were, it is a bizarre turn of events.”

He indicated however, that Mrs McIntosh wanted her husband back.

Deferring sentence on the couple until January 28 to allow the court to obtain reports, Sheriff Stein told Mr McIntosh that despite what he had done, his wife still wanted him back.

He added, “It may be a good idea just to avoid the bottle in the meantime.”