A local councillor tried to strangle his partner during a violent attack at their home after she made a ‘sarcastic’ remark about sex, a court heard today.
Ashley Farrall, 43, allegedly grabbed Katie Jones by the throat and pushed her against banisters in the row said to have been triggered by a scene they watched in the television programme ‘Married At First Sight’.
Farrall, a Labour councillor for Cheshire East Council at the time, later persuaded her to make a retraction statement and provided ‘burner’ phones to conceal their discussions which were prohibited by a bail conditions, Chester Crown Court was told.
Ms Jones sat behind a screen as she gave evidence on the opening day of a trial today and described how the couple had settled down to watch the E4 programme, where recently introduced couples embark on a marriage-like relationship, after putting their six-month-old son to bed at their home in Macclesfield in November last year.
She said: ‘We were watching Married At First Sight. Ashley made some comment about sex - that it was not just physical for him but very emotional as well.
