Hit out with hammer over phone friendship

Published on 7th June 2007 in News

A Swinefleet woman hit her husband with a hammer after he became suspicious of a friendship she had rekindled with an old school friend through the popular Friends Reunited website, Goole Magistrates' Court heard this week.

Julie Smethurst (48) of Sweyne Garth, pleaded guilty to a charge of actual bodily harm against her husband Neil when she appeared before Goole Magistrates' Court on Tuesday.

Prosecuting, Julie Laverack Glanville told the court that Mrs Smethurst's husband had claimed that, earlier this year, his wife had been telephoning and meeting another man. He admitted to checking telephone bills and his wife's mobile phone bills to find out when she had been in contact with the man.

Mrs Smethurst agreed not to contact the man again, but on the night before the attack, Neil Smethurst learned that his wife had gone back on her word and spoken to the man by phone.

The prosecutor told the court that on the morning of May 6, Mr Smethurst confiscated his wife's mobile phone and took it to the bathroom with him, but Mrs Smethurst's adult daughter called the police after her mother began shouting "give me my phone" to her husband.

Hit out at husband with hammer

Neil Smethurst agreed to give his wife her phone back if she agreed to stop contacting the man, but she produced a hammer and landed a blow on her husband's side, causing reddening.

Mr Smethurst managed to prise the hammer from his wife and handed it to police when they arrived.

In interview, Mrs Smethurst denied intentionally hitting her husband, but accepted that she could have 'caught' him recklessly with the hammer.

Defending, Shaun Pinchbeck told the court that, through the Friends Reunited website, Mrs Smethurst had become friendly with a former school friend who lived in Devon. The man was simply a friend with whom she was in contact again and she had not physically met up with him.

Mr Pinchbeck said that after Mr Smethurst confiscated his wife's phone early on May 6, he told her to "get out of the house".

Mrs Smethurst became "extremely frustrated" when her husband refused to give her the mobile phone back, so she hit the bathroom door with the hammer, causing it to fly open. She was struggling with her husband when she inadvertently struck him with the hammer.

The court heard that the couple were now back together, and Mr Smethurst no longer supports the prosecution case.

Magistrates adjourned the case for a full probation report, and ordered that Mrs Smethurst be released on unconditional bail until June 29, when she will return to Goole Magistrates' Court.