A SPARK from a barbecue and the fury of a woman landed former goalkeeper David McWilliam in the dock yesterday.
Glasgow Sheriff Court heard that, as McWilliam cooked a meal over the charcoal for his girlfriend, a spark landed on her son's arm, causing a minor burn. The boy's howls, however, fuelled revenge in his mother's heart.
Solicitor-advocate Joe Beltrami said the woman ordered the former Airdrie footballer out of her Motherwell home, and told him to take his car with him or she would have it removed. Then she telephoned the police, told them McWilliam had been drinking, and gave them his home address.
As McWilliam, 43, drove up to his flat in Candleriggs, in Glasgow's Merchant City, police were waiting for him.
The court was told he initially failed to give a breath test and was taken to the police station for a test on the Camic machine. This showed that he was four-and-a-half times the legal limit.
McWilliam yesterday admitted failing to give a breath test and having 154 microgrammes of alcohol in his breath.
Sheriff William Finlayson fined him #250 and banned him from driving for 30 months.
Mr Beltrami said that, had it not been for the spark and the row that followed it, McWilliam car would have stayed in his girlfriend's driveway for the weekend.
He added: ``Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. She blamed him for a slight burn on her son's arm, and couldn't accept it was an accident.''
After the case McWilliam, who won a Cup Final runners-up medal in 1975 when Airdrie lost to Celtic, refused to name his girlfriend but said: ``To say that I am devastated at what she did to me is an understatement. I haven't seen her since and have no intentions to ever see her again.''
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