War widow avoids jail after scratching, kicking and biting her new partner in drunken rage after downing gin

A WAR widow has avoided jail after scratching, kicking and biting her new partner in a “relentless” attack.

Christina Plumb, 49, whose first husband Olaf “Oz” Schmid was killed defusing a bomb in Afghanistan, flew into a drunken rage after downing gin.

She “behaved like a dog” as she ripped husband Adam Plumb’s t-shirt off during the brutal 20-minute attack at their £1.5million home in Devon.

Plumb has now avoided jail after she was convicted of assault and was instead handed a 12 week sentence suspended for 12 months.

In a statement read to the court, Adam said: “This has completely destroyed my life. Christina has showed no remorse.”

The campaigner became a figurehead for bereaved war widows after Staff Sgt Schmid died on his final day of duty in 2009.

She received a George Cross on his behalf after his death and fought for better pensions for grieving spouses and higher salaries for soldiers.

Newton Abbot Magistrates’ Court heard the horror unfolded during a late night row in September last year.

Plumb had got into bed with Adam after drinking gin but he left the room after she began grabbing and poking at him.

He told JPs: “She was grabbing me and putting her cold feet on my back. I told her to leave me alone.”

The property developer then went to a dressing room where he said Plumb “kept shouting” at him.

He continued: “She trapped me in the corner of the dressing room. She was literally just going at me. She was just attacking me. Hitting me in the balls. Kicking me. I could not get her off of me.

“The dressing room is about 4ft wide so it’s not very wide. When I went to leave she bit me in the middle of my back.”

In footage of the row, he could be heard branding Plumb a “disgusting” woman as he pleaded with her to leave him alone.

The ordeal only came to an end when he escaped to another room and shut himself inside to ring the police.

Plumb originally claimed she was a “victim of domestic violence” and that she “had been assaulted by Adam”.

She told the court her husband had beat and kicked her when he discovered she wanted a divorce.

But District Judge Stuart Smith said there was “no evidence” Plumb had suffered any injuries.

Evidence also showed she had cut her own nose with her nails and put blood on her husband’s T-shirt in a false bid to prove she had been attacked.

The judge said: “You have falsely attempted to maliciously manufacture injuries to your nose as an attempt to portray yourself as a victim of domestic abuse while all the time you were the aggressor.”