A husband who accused his estranged wife of cheating on him took revenge by distributing raunchy photos of her captioned ‘Lock up your husbands’. Alison Kidd (34) and Ian Cuthbert (46) had been married for just six months when their relationship fell apart, leading to the husband inflicting ‘mental abuse’ on his ex-partner. Last September, Cuthbert put up posters of Ms Kidd on a noticeboard at their children’s primary school, as well as nailing them to trees, sticking them on car windshields and posting them through letterboxes around the East Craigs area of Edinburgh. See a picture of the poster and the rest of the story after the break
Ms Kidd was told about the posters by friends in September last year, and reported her estranged husband to police. Cuthbert has now pleaded guilty to behaving in a threatening or abusive manner by putting up the leaflets, which were prompted by allegations that Ms Kidd was having an affair. The mother of two, who has now filed for divorce, said her husband was ‘very bitter’ after she announced she was leaving him.
‘It was an extremely abusive relationship, she said. ‘I’m happy to put it behind me and try to move on with my life. It was mental abuse and a very bad time in my life. ‘I was shocked and embarrassed by what happened, but to be honest I wasn’t surprised he did something like that. It was the sort of thing he would do. ‘He was very bitter that I wanted to leave and he was paranoid. I previously received a string of abusive texts and e-mails from him.
‘The police told me they expect he’ll get away with community sentence. I just want to make sure I never see him again.’ The couple were married at a country house hotel in March last year, but in July Ms Kidd moved out of the family home. Cuthbert pleaded guilty to the offence at Edinburgh Sheriff Court, and was told by the sheriff that his actions were ‘a form of assault’. He will be sentenced at a later date, and in the mean time is banned from approaching Ms Kidd or visiting her home.