By Campbell Thomas
A SENIOR RAF officer has been convicted of threatening his wife after suspecting she was having an affair.
Wing Commander Allan Steele, 42, grappled with Linzi Steele, 43, in an attempt to seize a laptop computer he believed contained damning evidence of her cheating.
The qualified solicitor and military legal adviser, who was decorated by US President Barack Obama after serving at the Pentagon, accused his wife of leaving a sex aid in view of three children.
His career is now in doubt after he was found guilty of shouting, swearing and threatening or abusive behaviour at a house in Waterside, East Ayrshire, in July. An assault charge was found not proven.
The senior Nato officer had uncovered text messages and emails between Mrs Steele and an old school friend she had met at a reunion, Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard.
Steele, of Giffnock, East Renfrewshire, said he had earlier turned up unexpectedly and asked her to use the “find my iPhone” app, as he thought he had left his phone in the officers mess at Joint Forces Command HQ in Northwood, Middlesex.
But he took her phone after Mrs Steele asked him to “give her five or 10 minutes”. He wandered the streets and sat in a park, where he discovered the phone had been disconnected.
Before it went dead he saw a Facebook notification containing the phrases “he has come back” and “he knows everything”. Steele told the court: “That was perhaps the most hurtful part.”
His family were so concerned about him they urged him to see a doctor and he was later referred to an “emergency team”.
Steele admitted taking the laptop but denied assaulting his wife or being abusive to her.
He said he lost his balance and stumbled forward as Mrs Steele fell on to a bed.
“At that stage Linzi bit me on the arm,” Steele said, adding he was bitten four times before escaping with the laptop.
Steele told the court he wanted to search for “further evidence of adultery. I was convinced at that stage that there was something dreadful on the laptop computer that I wanted to know about.”
He took the laptop and his wife’s phone to a data recovery company in Glasgow for forensic analysis. “I think it was the correct thing to do,” he said.
In one text message the former school friend, Greig McKenzie said: The court heard it contained messages from a former school friend arranging a meeting with his wife.
Going to phone you, stand by for action.” Mrs Steele replied: “Drive safe and call when you get there xx.”
The friend also wrote from a hotel to say: “It’s a lovely evening. If you were sitting opposite it would be perfect.” Mrs Steele replied: “I wish I was there too.”
John Scott QC, defending, asked Mrs Steele: “Can you see why that might suggest an inappropriate relationship between two people married to other people?” She disagreed.
Confronted with screenshots of emails and texts in which she had said in one message to the friend calling him “sweetheart”, Mrs Steele responded: “It’s not uncommon for me to have a term of endearment with my friends.”
Sheriff David Hall found Steele guilty of threatening or abusive behaviour, but not proven of an assault charge.
Sentence was deferred for good behaviour and bail was continued.
An RAF spokesman said: “It would be inappropriate for the RAF to comment further while legal proceedings are ongoing.”
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