Woman unhappy about spending two nights in cells after hitting husband with magazine

A Scottish pensioner who spent two nights in custody for “biffing” her husband with a magazine has branded her prosecution “ridiculous”. Four officers stormed into 65-year-old Irene Clark’s living room in Tayport, Fife, after a neighbour heard her and husband James arguing over what to watch on TV. Paramedics were called to examine James, 52, who had suffered nothing more than a paper cut after the incident. Shocked Irene, who has no previous convictions, was dragged off to the cells for 48 hours. Now she has accused the police and Crown office of “totally over-reacting” to the minor argument in July. Irene said: “We were watching TV on Sunday and James wanted to see some plane programme and I wanted to watch Foyle’s War.

“There was a Sunday magazine lying on the edge of the chair and it was like a swipe on the top of the head. It was open, it wasn’t even folded.” James said: “It was like what a school teacher used to do to me in maths class. We settled down to watch the TV after the matter had been resolved. It was nothing untoward but the police intervened. All I had on my head was a mark like I’d scratched a pimple. It was a paper cut really.” Irene was preparing to go to bed when the officers arrived. She said: “It was about half nine and I was in my dressing gown. The next thing we heard was ‘bang, bang, bang’ at the door. They came barging in, there were four of them. Two took James away to a bedroom and two came in with me to the living room. The policewoman said they’d had a report of a domestic incident.



“I said yes, we had an argument and I slapped him with a paper. She said ‘we’ll have to take you in now’. It was surreal. I was taken into the street and put in the van and I thought ‘Is this really happening to me?’” James said: “They sent for paramedics for me and my wife was apprehended and handcuffed. It was a total overreaction.” After a night in the cells in Cupar, Irene was taken to Dunfermline and did not appear in court until Tuesday afternoon. She said: “I was put in a cell with just a blanket and lunatics shouting and screaming next door. “You have no perception of time, it felt like forever. I was taken to Dundee on the Tuesday because it was a holiday on the Monday. I had to wait in the cells there with drug addicts and didn’t get out until 6pm.”

Meanwhile, her husband was growing increasingly worried. James said: “I was thinking, what the heck is going on? I was very concerned for her. I phoned up continuously. I did not consider myself being a victim for getting biffed over the head with a magazine after an argument over a TV programme.” Last week Irene was admonished at Dundee Sheriff Court after admitting striking her husband with the magazine to his injury on July 20. Her solicitor William Boyle said: “Either the law or those applying the law have gone mad. I have defended women from domestic violence for 40 years. It is an appalling crime. But either the law or those applying the law have gone mad. It’s like Alice in Wonderland and this politically-correct madness must stop.” A Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service spokesman said: “Domestic abuse is never trivial and our prosecutors take it extremely seriously - there is simply no place for it and no excuse for it.”