A police officer wept as he was cleared of grabbing his partner round the neck and threatening her with a knife.
Mark Gothard, 33, of Woodgrange Drive, Southend, was found not guilty of two counts of common assault, one of affray and one of harassment, at Southend Magistrates' Court yesterday (Wednesday).
One of the accusations was that he threatened his former partner with a knife, at their former home in Wickford, on May Day bank holiday this year.
Before the magistrates retired to consider their verdict, the defendant's senior officer Sgt Peter Cornwell told the court about an "emotional" conversation he had with Mr Gothard shortly before he was arrested.
The officer explained: "Mark was quite distressed about the possibility of losing contact with his children, the continuing breakdown of his relationship with his partner and his fear that his partner would engineer an incident that would jeopardise everything he considered dear."
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