A man found himself in the dock after telling his partner that her Sunday dinner “looked s***e”.
Rob Munro made the comment after falling out with his partner and when she tried to leave his house, there was a “tit-for-tat” struggle between the pair.
Munro was arrested and charged and admitted a single charge of threatening or abusive behaviour in relation to the incident on July 16 of this year at Inverness Sheriff Court.
Fiscal depute Sharon Ralph told the court that the woman had arrived at Munro’s Lochcarron home after visiting a recently bereaved friend and had begun cooking a Sunday dinner.
Argument over lack of wine
An argument began when Munro noticed that the woman had a glass of wine and he did not have any.
The woman asked him to take a plate of the dinner to her friend who lived nearby and he commented that it “looked s***e”.
When he returned from the errand the woman was on the phone to her sister, at which point Munro started “banging doors” because he “didn’t like her talking to her sister”.
Mrs Ralph told Sheriff Gary Aitken: “He was muttering things under his breath, which upset her.”
After he called her a “f***ing b****” she decided to leave and began gathering her belongings.
The court heard that when Munro stepped outside his property, the woman closed and locked the door “in order to gather her possessions” – at which point he began banging on the door and indicating that he wanted to get back into the house.
When the woman went outside and put her belongings in her vehicle a “struggle” between the pair ensued.
Pair’s ‘tit-for-tat’ struggle
Mrs Ralph said: “It was very much tit-for-tat. She managed to kick him and made contact with his jaw. It would be fair to say that he didn’t come off lightly.”
The police were contacted and Munro was arrested.
Solicitor John MacColl, for Munro, said his client and the woman had taken “a quantity of alcohol” on the day in question.
He said that it was because of this that Munro had been concerned when it appeared the woman was going to leave in her car.
“Mr Munro didn’t want her to do that,” he said.
He added that his client had no record of domestic offending.
Sheriff Gary Aitken fined Munro, of Kirkton Gardens, Lochcarron, £600.