A ceramicist allegedly flew into a rage and smashed his pottery in front of his “terrified” wife after becoming frustrated that he could not watch a rugby match on television, a court heard.
Jeremy Broadway lost his temper after returning from lunch with his wife, Catherine, and their daughter, Sam, when he was unable to find the England-Australia match on TV.
The court was told that Sam declined to help him search for the game because she was looking after the family cat.
Mrs Broadway, who is also a potter, said her husband then became “like somebody possessed”. She had gone to their shared home studio and discovered that some of the pots he had made had cracked on the stove.
The 70-year-old former public school teacher allegedly stormed into the studio and smashed the damaged pots against a wall.
He was also accused of assaulting his 70-year-old wife by grabbing her apron and pushing her into the sink.
Mr Broadway allegedly then hit a door with a metal telescope before backing his 34-year-old daughter into a corner. She punched him in self-defence, the court heard.
Weymouth Magistrates’ Court in Dorset was told that the mother and daughter barricaded themselves inside the kitchen, using furniture to block the door before calling police.
Mr Broadway, pictured in a pottery studio in 2003, was cleared after magistrates found his wife and daughter’s evidence contradictory at times
Jeremy Broadway (right) lost his temper when he returned from lunch with his wife Catherine (left), the court heard
Mr Broadway denied every allegation against him.
He told the court that he had been channel-hopping, describing the suggestion that he had erupted over missing the rugby as “almost laughable”.
Mr Broadway denied touching his wife in the pottery studio or smashing the pots. He said he had been annoyed because some of them had “exploded” on the stove and accepted that he “might have raised my voice”.
Magistrates said the evidence given by Mrs Broadway and the couple’s daughter was “not consistent” and contradictory in places. They were not satisfied beyond reasonable doubt and found Mr Broadway not guilty of two counts of assault.
The alleged incident took place at the family home in Child Okeford, Dorset, on November 1 last year.
The court heard that the family had hurried home from lunch because Mr Broadway wanted to watch the rugby.
However, the England-Australia match was not being broadcast on a mainstream channel, and he struggled to locate it without assistance, the court heard on Monday.
Giving evidence, Mrs Broadway said: “That was enough for him to get angry. He said we should be helping more.
Jeremy Broadway arriving at Weymouth Magistrates’ Court; his wife said he became “like somebody possessed”
The alleged incident unfolded at the Broadways’ home in Child Okeford, Dorset
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‘At that point I decided to go to the pottery, I was going to get some space.’
She said she noticed some pots on the stove had cracked, but said that when she told him what had happened ‘he went absolutely mad’.
Mrs Broadway told the court: ‘He was blaming me, saying it was my fault, why wasn’t I watching them? He just lost it.
‘He picked up the pots and threw them against the wall. He grabbed my apron and then my clothing on my shoulders and pushed me against the sink.
‘I managed to get away and ran indoors and shouted up to Sam, something like ‘stay in your room’.
‘The rage was so much, the face was red, the veins were up. I couldn’t get through to him, I really tried.
‘He started pounding on the door. We were both absolutely terrified. He was just like somebody possessed.’
Sam Broadway said she could not hear what was being said in the pottery studio but could hear her father ‘screaming and shouting’.
She claimed he advanced towards her with a clenched fist and so she punched her father.
But Mr Broadway, who used to teach art at Bryanston School near Blandford, told the court he did not touch his wife in the pottery studio and denied smashing pots.
He also denied being the aggressor to Sam and said she had launched an unprovoked attack.
Mr Broadway said: ‘Catherine came up and said there’s something wrong with the fire. She had left it unattended and the damp pieces of pottery were starting to explode.
‘Some had already blown, others hadn’t so I tried to get them off quickly.
‘My wife came in, I said ‘I thought you were supposed to be keeping an eye on them?’ It transpired she had been helping Sam.’
He said he went upstairs to watch the television, at which point his daughter ‘charged straight towards me and immediately started hitting me quite hard, at least three times, maybe half a dozen.’
Mr Broadway added: ‘I just tried to shield myself, I never tried to hit her.’
Catherine Lickley, defending, told the magistrates that in the 999 call Mrs Broadway told the handler she did not feel threatened and that her daughter often read situations incorrectly due to her autism.
Mrs Broadway said in the call they had not had any form of heated argument and no threat was made by her husband.
Ms Lickley also said Sam had punched Mr Broadway with such force she had fractured a bone in her hand, but had no other injuries that supported him assaulting her.
