DJ Suzie McGuire tried to take own life over ‘abuse’

DJ Suzie Mcguire says she was in an abusive relationship

Clyde 1 DJ Suzie McGuire told Paisley Sheriff Court that she tried to take her own life last April to escape a life of “unpredictable vicious beatings and torture” and described herself as a “broken woman”.

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The mother-of-four said she took 40 paracetamol tablets and drank a litre of vodka, but said she does not recognise the person she was then.

Ms McGuire also described further incidents when she was allegedly assaulted by her husband, Derek Mitchell, including being slapped in front of people at a celebrity after-party and having her finger broken in front of her two eldest children.

Giving evidence, she described being assaulted in the Grill Room at 29, a private members club at Royal Exchange Square, Glasgow, in December 2011. She said she had hosted the Cash for Kids lunch at the Hilton hotel earlier that day and afterwards had gone on to an after-party with her husband and others, including Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley and former Rangers owner Craig Whyte, who was then still with the club.

Ms McGuire said Mr Ashley gave her a cuddle and congratulated her on the amount of money raised. She said: “Derek lost it, really, really turned very vicious and very nasty at that point. He slapped me across the face and bit me on the shoulder in front of company, in front of quite a lot of people.”

She said Mitchell then tried to hit Mr Ashley, and she was “humiliated”.

Ms McGuire also told the court that around May 2011, Mitchell broke her finger while they were walking in the street.

She said they had been at the Eaglesham Fair and Mitchell had left before her and her children to drink, but while they were walking home he “appeared from nowhere” and asked for car keys.

The jury heard that when she said no, they struggled and he pushed her against a wall, cutting her head. Her two daughters looked on, “hysterical”, and her then-youngest child was in a pram on the pavement.

She said: “He broke my finger. He just grabbed it and bent it back as far as it would pretty much go.”

She added: “Wee girls shouldn’t see things like that. When they saw it, it was like a horror film.”

She said that they do not talk about it, but that it will have had an impact on them, adding: “Nobody should see their mum being abused in such a fashion.”

The jury were shown pictures of her hand after the alleged assault and heard that she had corrective surgery, but still cannot bend her finger now.

Ms McGuire said she was the sole provider in her household and all money went into a bank account that Mitchell accessed. She said she was given £10 or £20 to spend and questioned if she used her debit card.

The court heard the relationship came to an end in July 2013 and that she was “broken”.

Amanda Gallagher, prosecuting asked her how broken she was. Ms McGuire replied: “I took 40 paracetamol and a litre of vodka to end my life.”

Asked when she did that, she said, “Last April”. She added: “I don’t recognise that person now, because I would have left my children with no mum.

“It wasn’t a cry for help, I took enough to kill myself to escape from a life of hell, a life of unpredictable vicious beating and torture in every way.”

Mitchell denies a string of charges including assaults and breaches of the peace between 2009 and 2013. He has lodged a special defence of self-defence for one of the charges.

The trial continues.