An experienced policeman accused of physically and mentally abusing his partner in a six-year reign of domestic abuse branded her a jealous, paranoid and vindictive liar today.
Police Constable Fraser Ross, who has been an officer for 16 years, admitted he had regularly physically fought with Anne-Marie Hirdman during their relationship.
But he denied he'd assaulted her, insisting he'd been forced to restrain her several times - because she started attacking him when he tried to break up with her.
PC Ross, 41, made the claims while giving evidence in his own defence during his trial at Hamilton Sheriff Court.
He denies repeatedly physically and mentally abusing Miss Hirdman, 42, over a six-year period, between 2013 and 2019, at his home in Motherwell, Lanarkshire.
He said: "Annie is a very jealous, paranoid person, and after three months together she started seeing issues that weren't there.
"She would say I'd become moody and distant during the week.
"I would say, 'I'm this way because I'm tired because I'm on night shift'. She could never be satisfied.
"Over the course of a six-year relationship, we never resolved an argument.
"If I thought we had, three or four weeks later it would come back up again from her stance.
"She was constantly convinced I was hiding something, constantly convinced I had some ulterior motive for something I did."
And, when asked by his solicitor, Gordon Williams, if she was telling the truth, he replied: "She's lying. She's a very vindictive person."
PC Ross, who was understood to have been based in Glasgow, before being suspended because of the domestic abuse allegations, said of the alleged attacks: "They are at times when I have told her I was no longer interested in pursuing a relationship with her - that seemed to set her off."
And, when asked if he had called her "paranoid and insecure" during one argument, he said: "I told her that numerous times over the six-year relationship.
"I asked her to go and get counselling as far back as 2015 in fact, and 2018, because of it.
"I made it a condition of our relationship that she get help for it - it was a major problem with her.
"When she was attacking me or trying to damage things in the house, I have restrained her - but no further than was necessary than to stop her in the attacking or the damaging.
"We fought with each other. I know she bruises easily in that sense."
He also said the pair play fought on occasion - describing it as "an absolute carry on" and saying there was "nothing wrong with it in any way at all" - and insisted he had only ever seriously been physical with her "purely in defence of" himself.
Ross - whose address is given on court papers as care of Police Scotland Professional Standards department - denies assaulting Miss Hirdman on three separate occasions, and also denies one abusive behaviour charge.
Ross denies assaulting Miss Hirdman in October 2017 by repeatedly grabbing her, pinning her to the ground and placing his hand over her mouth.
He also denies assaulting her in September 2018 by pushing her and repeatedly headbutting her.
And he denies trying to choke her in an August 2019 assault, after forcing her to the ground, placing his hand over her mouth and digging his knee into her body.
He also denies behaving in a threatening or abusive way towards her, between December 2013, and March 2019, by repeatedly shouting, swearing, behaving aggressively towards her, threatening her and making "derogatory remarks."
PC Ross had been facing a second charge of threatening or abusive behaviour, but was found not guilty of the offence last month, following a no case to answer submission by Mr Williams.
The trial, before Sheriff Ross Macfarlane QC, continues.
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