Army veteran attacked wife at Inverness house while wearing a bra
An Army veteran dressed up in a mini skirt and ballerina shoes after attacking his wife while wearing a pink bra.
As Samuel Cree, who served in Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo and Northern Ireland, waited for the military welfare officer and padre to arrive after the incident, the 53 year old high fived his partner of 19 years and made her a cup of tea.
He then told the two Army officers who saw him in his female garb: "This is how I am."
At Inverness Sheriff Court, Cree denied assaulting his wife to her severe injury by punching her repeatedly on the head, placing his hand in her mouth and pulling out one of her teeth.
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He was convicted by Sheriff David Sutherland of committing assault to injury in a house in Wimberley Way, Inverness on June 20 last year.
Defence lawyer John MacColl successfully argued there was no evidence that he breached a bail condition imposed by a police undertaking not to contact his wife.
Sentence was deferred until September 16 for a background and psychiatric report and bail was continued.
Mrs Cree, who is now estranged from her husband, told the trial that she was asleep in the bedroom where she regularly slept, when Cree burst in from his own bedroom.
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. 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."
Army personnel Barry Smith and Rev Jeff Berry both told the court that Cree seemed confused and they spent over an hour and a half with the couple trying to establish what happened.
They said that his explanation was 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."
