Bride and groom spent wedding night in jail after attacking guest

A bride and groom spent their wedding night in a cell at a Hampshire police station after beating up a reception guest. The couple, David and Louise-Anne Turnbull, had dashed back home from a Southampton nightclub where they had been celebrating, following a frantic call from a babysitter who had been looking after their children. It ended with the guest who was their next door neighbour being kicked, punched and suffering a fractured jaw and the couple being arrested.

Jurors heard how they had held their reception at a pub in Holbury, which Christopher Cerqua attended. But he was asked to leave after he got behind the wheel of Mrs Turnbull’s car and hit another vehicle in the car park. The couple moved on to the nightclub but rushed home after getting a call from the babysitter who was looking after three of their five children and they feared he was posing a threat to them.



Recorder Stephen Parish said: “Without asking or waiting for an explanation, you both attacked him. The main damage was done by you David Turnbull. You punched him in the face about three times and when he was on the ground, you kicked him in the head. Indeed the evidence suggests you actually stamped on his head.” He was satisfied Mrs Turnbull had thrown at least one punch.

The couple, from Langdown Road, Hythe, were convicted after a five day trial of causing actual bodily harm. Jailing 28-year-old Turnbull for 21 months, the judge said it was a premeditated assault and he had involved the use of “a shod foot” as a weapon. The judge accepted his wife, 33, had played a lesser role in the assault and had children to look after though she had joined in “with relish”. He gave her 12 months supervision and a three-month curfew.