An angry customer coughed over a charity shop boss in a row about facemasks.
Mary McArthur spluttered into the face of manager Ann Wallace, outside the Thrifty One community store in Alyth.
She was complaining about another member of staff who she claims had spoken in a “snidey” manner to a maskless child shopping for a Halloween costume.
McArthur, 39, was found guilty after a two-day trial at Perth Sheriff Court of culpably and recklessly leaning close to Ms Wallace and repeatedly coughing in her face.
Jurors found her not guilty of assaulting the other shop worker Catherine Scott by coughing in a similar manner.
Sheriff William Wood deferred sentence until October 5.
“In the context of a global pandemic, this is a relatively serious matter and I am sure you will appreciate that,” he told McArthur.
Maskless
The remote jury of seven men and eight women heard evidence of a disagreement between McArthur and Ms Scott on October 30 after she declined to serve a child who was not wearing his mask.
Ms Scott told jurors: “I did ask her to stand back.
“I said it fairly firmly, but nothing more than that.
“She was definitely less than two metres away from me.
“She told me: ‘I don’t have Covid, I don’t have a disease.’
“I said that nobody knows if they have it or not and they might be asymptomatic and that’s why we are asking people to wear masks.”
Ms Scott claimed McArthur had coughed “directly” at her, with her left hand outstretched in front of her.
McArthur, an unemployed mother-of-three said she leaned over the counter and coughed at Ms Scott, but insisted she had covered her mouth.
Sort out the ‘f***ing volunteers’
The court heard McArthur then went outside to complain to shop manager Ann Wallace about Ms Scott.
Ms Wallace, who had been shielding throughout the first stages of the pandemic, said: “She was telling me that the ‘f***ing volunteers needed sorted out’.
“She coughed twice, right into my face.”
Ms Wallace said: “Mary said she would never come back into the shop again, which to be honest, wasn’t much of a hardship.”
McArthur, who stayed in the town’s Springbank Road but has since moved to Forfar, admitted coughing on Ms Wallace without covering her mouth.
“I had known her for a long time,” she said.
“I didn’t think she would take it the wrong way.”
She said she became “annoyed” with Ms Scott after she spoke to a child who was shopping for a Halloween costume in a “snidey way”.
“I went to the counter. She was shouting: ‘Stand back, stand back’.
“She was treating me like I had a disease.”
McArthur said: “I leaned over the counter, put my hand over my mouth and coughed, and I told her: “I don’t have a disease’.”
Fiscal depute Gavin Burton asked her: “Why are you coughing on anyone during a global pandemic?”
She replied: “I didn’t think I was going to give her Covid.”
McArthur did not have a sunflower lanyard at the shop but had since started wearing one.
She said wearing masks brought on panic attacks.
