Lib Dem campaigner for battered women ‘assaults Tory husband’

LONDON - A Liberal Democrat councillor, who campaigns to help battered women, assaulted her Conservative husband when their own coalition came to a bitter end, a court heard.

Christine James, 51, attacked husband Ian after suspecting him of having an affair with former mayoress Alison Cocks, reports the Daily Mail.

She followed Ian to Cocks’s house, walked in and began ’screaming like a banshee’.

The mother-of-five called Ian a ‘b*****d’ and hit him several times before storming out.

Ian, who owns a cafe, was left with red marks around the chin and throat from the attack.

“Ian said she (James) connected blows to his chin, chest and arms on several occasions. He tried to hold her off and call the police on his mobile with the other hand,” prosecutor Elizabeth Valera told magistrates in Weymouth.

“He said when she saw that, she turned around and stormed out of the house shouting more abuse,” she added.

Cocks, 48, described James as being in a ‘blind rage’ at the time.

The couple are both councillors for Weymouth and Portland Borough Council in Dorset.

Despite representing different parties, they had been happily married for 19 years until this summer when Ian suddenly left the marital home in Weymouth.

James, a driving instructor, pleaded guilty to a charge of assault by beating in relation to the attack, which happened on August 15 this year.

The court heard she also has a previous conviction for battery involving slapping her 24-year-old daughter across the face in June this year.

James was ‘very sorry for the incident’, said Holly Huxtable, defending.

“Mr James had left the marital home shortly before with no explanation,” she added.

“Mrs James was clearly aggrieved by that and didn’t quite know why he had left, and she wanted some answers. She would say there were rumours he was having an affair. She wanted to confirm this,” said Huxtable.

Weymouth magistrates gave James an 18-month conditional discharge and ordered her to pay 200 pounds costs.

The court rejected Ian’s claim for compensation. (ANI)