An Army veteran dressed up in a black mini skirt and ballerina shoes after brutally attacking his wife in her bed.
Samuel Cree burst into his wife’s bedroom wearing a pink bra and started punching her face and even wrenched out one of her teeth, a court heard.
After halting his terrifying assault and going downstairs, Cree, 53, made a cup of tea and dressed himself in women’s clothes before awaiting the arrival of military personnel.
Cree’s violent and bizarre behaviour was described during his trial at Inverness Sheriff Court.
Cree – who served in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Northern Ireland – denied assaulting his partner of 19 years to her injury by punching her repeatedly on the head, placing his hand in her mouth and pulling out one of her teeth.
But Sheriff David Sutherland convicted him of the attack, which occurred in a house in Wimberley Way, Inverness, on June 20 last year.
‘He was crazy – full of rage’
Mrs Cree, who is now estranged from her Elgin-based husband, told the trial that she was asleep in the bedroom when he burst in.
She said: “He was sweating profusely and was wearing a pink bra, jogging bottoms and trainers.
“He was crazy – full of rage, yelling for me to lay back down and go to sleep. He pinned my arms down with his knees and started punching the side of my face.
“He then put his fingers in my mouth – I couldn’t breathe. He clawed his hand as he took it out and I saw a tooth go flying out.
“I was calling for help because the window was slightly open.”
After the assault, Cree’s behaviour became increasingly bizarre.
‘I must stop killing my wife’
His wife told the court: “He passed me a towel to wipe the blood off me and I tried reverse psychology to calm things down.
“I said to him to give me a high five and we went downstairs. He made me a cup of tea and then went back upstairs to bring down a black bag with white polka dots.
“It was full of women’s clothes and he changed into them before the padre and welfare officer came round.
“He said out of the blue: ‘A red mist descended. I must stop killing my wife.’
“I thought he was beating the living daylights out of me to get rid of me. I was petrified.”
When two Army officers – Barry Smith and Rev Jeff Berry – arrived at the house Cree was in female clothes, including a blouse, mini skirt, black tights and ballerina’s shoes.
He told them: “This is how I am.”
‘He said he thought he was slapping his wife to wake her’
Mr Smith and Rev Berry both told the court that Cree seemed confused and they spent more than an hour and a half with the couple trying to establish what happened.
They said he explained that he woke up startled and thought the house was on fire.
Rev Berry said: “He said he thought he was slapping his wife to wake her to get her out of the house, but he was actually punching her.
“He then apologised for punching.”
Cree’s defence lawyer John MacColl successfully argued there was no evidence that he breached a bail condition imposed by police not to contact his wife.
Sentence was deferred until September 16 for a background and psychiatric report. His bail was continued.
