A bride’s father straddled a wedding guest and repeatedly punched her in the head as a family feud boiled over during his daughter’s big day.
Derek Martin, 54, from Dundee, pinned the bride’s aunt down on the ground at the Post Office Bar in Broughty Ferry and rained blows on her head as the wedding reception came to a violent end.
Martin’s sister-in-law Carol Ann Anderson was invited to the wedding in an attempt to patch up family differences but ended up in hospital after being beaten up.
A court was told Ms Anderson and her sister, Martin’s wife, had not got on for years and had fallen out again during the evening reception.
Depute fiscal Carol Whyte told Perth’s Justice of the Peace court: “The complainer is the sister-in-law of the accused. He is married to her sister.
“There has been ill feeling for a number of years. On the evening of July 25 everyone had been at a family wedding. At around 1.30am everyone was beginning to leave.
“At that point Ms Anderson expressed concern for her friend.
“She had gone and approached the accused and asked what he was playing at. The accused punched her on the head, knocked her to the ground, and then sat on her and punched her a number of times to the head and body.
“Ms Anderson went to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.
“She had soft tissue damage and bruising and was allowed away with painkillers.”
Martin was reported to the police over the attack and he admitted what he had done when officers interviewed him.
Martin, of Fithie Bank, admitted attacking and injuring Carol Ann Anderson on July 26 by punching her, knocking her down, sitting on her and punching her head and body several times.
Solicitor Ian Myles, defending, told the court: “It was his daughter’s wedding and supposed to be one of the happiest days in his family life, but it turned into one of the ugliest and most disastrous.”
Taking note of Martin’s previously clean record, JP John Stewart fined him £300 and ordered him to pay £100 compensation.