A Canberra man drank an entire bottle of scotch whisky, soiled his pants and choked his wife when she refused to wash them at 1.30am, a magistrate has found.
The man, who The Canberra Times has chosen not to name in order to protect the identity of the victim, fronted the ACT Magistrates Court late last year.
The court heard he and his brother had gone to a party on Christmas Eve in 2019 and each of them drank about a bottle of Johnnie Walker Black Label.
By the time the pair returned home, the defendant had soiled his pants.
In a decision published this week, Special Magistrate Margaret Hunter said the man asked his wife to wash his pants immediately.
The magistrate said when the woman refused and said she would wait until it was daytime, the man became angry.
The man disputed what prosecutors alleged happened next.
They said he hit the woman with a pillow, slapped her in the face, grabbed her by her neck and pushed her onto a bed.
They said when the woman tried to get up from the bed, the man pushed her down and twisted her arm before he grabbed a slipper and slapped her with it.
The prosecutors said the man also slapped the woman in front of his brother.
The magistrate ultimately found all of these offences proven, despite the man's wife having told the court she wanted the charges against him dropped.
The woman denied her husband had assaulted her.
Ms Hunter said the victim was scared to tell the truth in court for fear her husband, "who was her whole life", would or could go to jail if he was found guilty.
The magistrate found the woman had been telling the truth during her first police interview, though, when she said her husband had assaulted her, appeared very uncomfortable and "kept touching her neck".
Ms Hunter said the defendant's brother, too, was also "not forthcoming" when he gave evidence in court.
He claimed he didn't see his brother hit the woman. He said they were standing apart in their bedroom - but the magistrate said she couldn't take his word for it either way.
Ms Hunter found the defendant had committed three counts of common assault, and one count of choking, suffocating or strangling his wife.
She found a fourth count of common assault unproven. That offence alleged the man had punched his wife in the back and pushed her against a wall.
