Probation for man who cut wife's throat over drugs
JOHN ROBERTSON

A MAN who cut his wife's throat after she admitted using the housekeeping
money to buy drugs was put on probation for two years at the High Court in
Edinburgh.

James McElhinney missed the jugular vein only by "a fluke" in the attack
with a sixinch knife, a court heard.

He had rowed with Denise McElhinney after she confessed to spending
housekeeping money on drugs.

Lord Dawson told McElhinney, 26, of Cairnswell Avenue, Halfway, Cambuslang,
Glasgow, that he would normally have been sentenced to several years in
jail for the assault.

However, the court was told Mrs McElhinney had forgiven her husband and the
judge was prepared in the special circumstances to impose a sentence of two
years' probation.

At an earlier hearing, Mc Elhinney admitted assaulting his wife to her
severe injury and danger of life on 8 March last year at their home in
Langcroft Drive, Cambuslang.

The court was told that an argument broke out when Mrs McElhinney admitted
that she had pawned her jewellery and used housekeeping money to buy drugs.

McElhinney repeatedly punched and kicked her on the face before seizing her
hair and pulling back her head and striking her on the throat with a knife.

The couple's twoyearold daughter had pleaded with McElhinney: "Don't hit
Mummy, Daddy."

The advocatedepute Frances McMenamin said: "It was only a fluke that Mrs
McElhinney's jugular vein or main artery was not cut. She would have died
quickly if that had happened."

The victim was taken to hospital and needed six stitches in the neck wound.

She also had a fractured nose and her head and face were heavily bruised.

Miss McMenamin added: "I have been specifically asked by Mrs McElhinney to
say that she forgives her husband for the assault on her."

The defence counsel, Paul McBride, told Lord Dawson that McElhinney was
thoroughly ashamed of himself. "He is a hardworking husband and father and
he was pushed to the limits of his tolerance by his wife's behaviour."

He added: "She is now drugfree and they are hoping to live again as man
and wife."