A MAN has been cleared of domestic abuse charges against Nicola Sturgeon’s sister.
Steven Waite was today found not guilty of domestically abusing Gillian Sturgeon and another ex after a trial at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court.
The trial previously heard how Gillian Sturgeon, 50, drove to Steven Waite’s home after she found out he was seeing someone else.
Mr Waite, 53, told the court he had dumped Ms Sturgeon weeks before August 7, 2021, when she went to his house to confront him for “cheating”.
She said Mr Waite had violently grabbed her and threw her across his living room then pushed her down the stairs.
However Mr Waite said: “I didn’t invite her in. I must have asked her 10 times to leave and she refused.”
Before admitting he had taken her wrists to try and physically eject her from his home which he said he thought was “reasonable in the circumstances.”
Still refusing to leave, Sturgeon then followed him upstairs and another argument ensued resulting in Ms Sturgeon spitting in his face.
She told Kilmarnock Sheriff Court: “Yes, I spat in his face. I’m not proud of it, but it was just instinctual. My daughter was there and I was scared.”
Procurator Fiscal depute Fraser Alexander asked: “How did he respond?”
“He called me a dirty b****,” Ms Surgeon said.
But the jury rejected Ms Sturgeon’s claims after she admitted she herself had been arrested and charged for spitting during the incident in August 2021.
Waite’s defence solicitor Donna Maitland described Ms Sturgeon as “A woman scorned” whose “sketchy memory” made her non credible.
Ms Sturgeon had also claimed Waite had sent her an email in 2023, two years after he had dumped her, threatening her and calling her names.
However Waite denied having her email address and accused Ms Sturgeon of sending the email to herself from his email account which was still logged in to an iPad she had lent him.
Mr Waite, was also cleared of assaulting another former partner, Amanda MacFarlane at various incidents during their relationship, which overlapped Ms Sturgeon’s, between May 2021 and May 2022.
Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard how the couple had a “toxic” relationship which was plagued by constant arguments about Ms MacFarlane’s job as a webcam girl.
Ms MacFarlane told the court Waite was happy for her to do the work because it paid well, but he suffered bouts of jealousy.
However the accused said he “couldn’t stop her doing it” but found it difficult when logged into the site under a false name and “found out she was arranging to meet men. It went from webcam to escorting and I found that difficult”.
She claimed she woke up one night to him strangling her.
She said: “I had gone to sleep in my daughter’s bed and he was in ours. I finally dozed off to sleep and the next thing I remember was waking up and realising I couldn’t breathe.
Ms MacFarlane told the court Waite had also slashed her across the stomach whilst “messing about with a kitchen knife”, had thrown a candle, car key and a box of shoes at her in various fits of rage.
She recalled one time he became furious while she was in a bath and held her head under the water and had also scalded her with a boiling kettle.
However Mr Waite gave evidence in his own defence telling the jury: “it simply didn’t happen.”
He was found not guilty of both charges.
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