Sheriff warns couple over behaviour
A HUSBAND and wife have been warned they face jail if they keep battering each other.
John and Joanne Pender are regulars in the dock at Ayr Sheriff Court.
They both have several domestic abuse convictions because their bickering keeps getting out of hand.
This week, it was John’s turn to appear in the dock.
The couple’s despairing lawyer told a Sheriff: “They can’t live without each other, but they can’t live peacefully with each other either.”
The 55-year-old pled guilty to repeatedly shouting at his wife and throwing items of furniture and ornaments around the living room of the couple’s Lochside Road home on February 5 this year.
Defence lawyer Ian Gillies told Sheriff Carole Cunninghame that the couple have a very tempestuous relationship and that he fears for their future.
He said: “They have been married for 30 years. Both of them have lengthy records.
“They seem to live peacefully for a period of time and then something happens and one or the other is charged.
“Then the next day the other is banging on my door saying they can’t live without each other.
“Mr Pender walks with a stick. Mrs Pender is now blind in one eye and is in and out of Ailsa hospital because of an alcohol problem.
“Mr Pender is a poor soul, as is Mrs Pender. But they can’t live without each other. They are killing themselves to be quite frank.
“But I’ve told them they can’t keep using the court like this.”
In March last year, Mrs Pender, 51, thumped her husband after he turned up at court drunk.
Police officers sent him home because he was too intoxicated to appear in the dock.
Ironically, Mr Pender’s court appearance came about because he previously attacked her.
Sheriff Carole Cunninghame told the couple they will go to jail if they don’t stop fighting with each other.
Sentence was deferred on Mr Pender for him to be of good behaviour.
But the pair were at it again before they had even left the courtroom.
Mrs Pender chastised her husband for walking across the front of the dock.
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