Baby shower descended into punch up after guessing game joke angered mum-to-be
A baby shower ended in violence with one mother being punched and a grandmother having an essential feeding tube dislodged, a court heard.
There was hostility between the relatives of the couple having the baby throughout what should have been a fun family get-together.
Tensions started to escalate after a game called 'Would Mummy Rather' had one person shout the then expectant mother would open wine rather than put a bottle on for the baby, Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard.
Rowing continued over what are usually light-hearted games, and the bad feeling between the families escalated to violence outside the hall in Lochore, Fife.
Mum Sarah Wilson punched the other mother after grabbing her hair and 20-year-old Chardonnay Wilson assaulted the grandmother of the father-to-be, dislodging her nasogastric feeding tube.
During the trial, Sarah Wilson, 45, of Kirkcaldy, Fife, admitted that on May 18 last year at Lochore Miners' Welfare Institute she assaulted Pamela Ritchie by seizing her by the hair and repeatedly punching her on the body.
Chardonnay Wilson, also of Kirkcaldy, was found guilty of a charge that she assaulted Yvonne Ritchie by attempting to seize her essential feeding tube.
The court was told the baby shower for her sister Chantelle, ahead of the birth of her daughter, started at 1pm.
She said the two families were sitting at different tables and 'at first it was fine'.
But bad feeling began to escalate after a game named 'Would Mummy Rather'.
She told the court there was a question: 'Would mummy rather put a bottle on for the baby or open a bottle of wine?'
Someone from the father-to-be's family then shouted out the new mother would open a bottle of wine, and Chardonnay Wilson told the court: 'Chantelle got upset and everything started to escalate from there.'
Her mother Sarah and the other mother Ms Ritchie were 'arguing back and forward', the court heard, and she Chardonnay Wilson said: 'My mum told her they could speak any other day but not to spoil the occasion.'
But arguing continued during a game of 'Baby Bingo' and there were allegations of sexual comments being made.
And there were then claims about an abusive comment, aimed at the Wilsons, being written on a paper plate.
Chardonnay Wilson said she had also written a message in the baby book, but someone had ripped it out.
Gino Gambale, Chardonnay Wilson's solicitor, asked for his client to be given an absolute discharge as a conviction would end her career as a carer.
He said she had worked as a carer for the elderly and vulnerable for the past three years, starting at the age of 18.
He said: 'This was the baby shower for her sister and as we've heard tensions heightened throughout the day.
'The families were not getting on and this has spilled outside.
'This was a serious assault but something that happened very quickly.'
Sheriff Susan Duff said it would 'not be proportionate' to impose a sentence which would end a young person's career in this case.
She therefore agreed to the defence request for an absolute discharge, which means the offence will not go on Wilson's record.
Sarah Wilson will be sentenced next month after the sheriff called for reports.
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