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News Clippings
Saturday 28 September 1996 (Daily Telegraph)
Spider revenge of jilted husband
A HUSBAND took revenge on his wife's lover by taunting
him with a five-inch Chilean spider, a court was told
yesterday.
The lover was so frightened that he had to take
tranquilisers, Salisbury magistrates' court heard.
Tony Smith, 45, a father-of-three, of Porton, near
Salisbury, bought the spider from a local pet shop
knowing that Kevin Knight, 50, was an arachnophobic. He
then took it round to Mr Knight's house four miles away
where Smith's wife Karen, 38, had previously moved in.
Smith pushed his way into the house, said Ian Halliday,
prosecuting. "Mr Knight ran down the hallway
followed by the defendant who was swearing at him.
"Mr Knight slipped and fell on the floor. The
defendant then hit him in the face three times. A few
minutes later Mr Knight felt a tingling sensation and
realised that Smith had thrown a spider at him."
Sarah Barnard, defending, said Smith, a former RAF pilot,
was a man of good character but had flipped when his wife
left him.
Smith pleaded guilty to causing actual bodily harm and
was granted bail on condition that he kept away from Mr
Knight.
The case was adjourned until next month for pre-sentence
reports to be written.
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