A woman who became a prominent campaigner for military personnel after her husband was killed by a Taliban bomb has been found guilty of assaulting her new partner.
Christina Plumb, whose late husband Olaf Schmid was a bomb disposal expert, hit, kicked and bit Adam Plumb at their home in Devon, a judge heard.
Alistair Verheijen, prosecuting, told South Devon magistrates court in Newton Abbot that Plumb, 49, drank a large amount of gin when she got into bed and tried to cuddle her husband in September last year.
He said Adam Plumb, 41, went to go to another bedroom to sleep but she began kicking him in the back and pulling off the bedcovers. They ended up in a dressing room where the prosecution said the defendant bit her husband’s back and ripped off his T-shirt during an attack lasting up to 20 minutes.
Adam Plumb the court: “She was full of rage, scratching, kicking out at me relentlessly. I put my hands out to stop her but it did not work. I could not get out of the corner. I could not get her off me.” The court was shown photos of what appeared to be a bite to his back and scratch mark to his chest.
Christina Plumb claimed her husband bit her on the nose during the incident and that he trapped her fingers in a door, but he denied both accusations and said she sustained no injuries.
Under cross-examination by the barrister Francesca Whebell, representing Christina Plumb, her husband denied he was in a new relationship at the time of the incident.
He also denied he was annoyed because she had booked an appointment the next day about getting a divorce. Adam Plumb said it was he who wanted a divorce, claiming his wife had abused him over the previous two years and police had been called five times to their home.
Asked why he did not walk out of the house and wait for the police, he replied: “She was behaving like a dog.”
PC Alex Lyons-Martin, who went to the scene, said Ms Plumb was “extremely emotional, crying and almost hysterical”.
He added: “She said she was the victim of serious domestic violence by Adam. I did not see any injuries on her as far as I can recall.”
Judge Stuart Smith ruled that Adam Plumb’s evidence was compelling and that Christina Plumb had consumed most of a bottle of gin. The judge said she tried to make out she was the victim of domestic violence in a “failed scheme to get him arrested”.
The case was adjourned for a pre-sentence report and Christina Plumb will be sentenced next month. The court heard she had no previous convictions, cautions or warnings.
Christina Plumb became a figurehead for bereaved families of service personnel after Olaf Schmid died in Afghanistan in 2009. She campaigned for better pensions for war widows and higher salaries for those in the armed forces, and called on politicians to “fight as hard as Olaf did” for peace.
