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A woman who battered her female partner with a baseball bat days after catching her in bed with a man yesterday avoided jail.

Marnie Drumm caught lover Brogan Paterson – with whom she had been in a relationship since they were 15 – having sex with a man.

The pair fell out but Miss Paterson repeatedly contacted Drumm in a bid to patch things up.

Three days later they met in Dundee’s Lochee Park to walk their dog, only for the meet up to descend into an argument and violence.

Fiscal depute Charmaine Gilmartin told the court the complainer had been friends with Drumm for years and they had even lived together until a few weeks before the incident.

They had gone out on the day in question for a walk with Drumm’s dog when an argument broke out between them.

Mrs Gilmartin said: “That escalated in to a scuffle that quickly ended.

“The complainer chased the accused towards the accused’s car. Once at the car the accuser retrieved a short baseball bat and began swinging it at the complainer.

“The struck her three times and the complainer felt immediate sharp pain and screamed. A dog walker heard the shouting and another onlooker ran towards them.

“The accused was seen swinging the bat hard downwards towards her head and body. The accused then got in the car and drove away.

“She was taken to hospital later and found to have a fractured left elbow and hairline fractures to the end of the adjacent bones. She underwent surgery to reset them with wires, plates and pins.

“Around 5pm on May 29 the accused burst in to the ward demanding the complainer leave to speak to her. She was asked to leave by the nurses.

“On June 2 the complainer disclosed what had happened to her grandmother and the police were contacted.”

Drumm, 22, of Thurso Crescent, Dundee, pleaded guilty on indictment to attacking her former partner Brogan Paterson on May 28 last year in Lochee Park, Dundee.

Defence solicitor Anne Duffy said: “They had been in a relationship from a very early age.

“The accused caught her partner and a man engaging in sexual intercourse three days prior to the offence.

“At that her world fell apart and she struggled to come to terms with it.

“They met that day with the accused hoping to resume her relationship with the complainer but things regressed and Miss Drumm picked up this bat.

“It was a bat she kept in her car with a ball for hitting the ball for the dogs to chase.”

Sheriff Alastair Brown imposed a community payback order with 200 hours unpaid work and two years’ supervision.

He said: “You inflicted a nasty injury with a weapon.

“But having regard to all the circumstances and because I don’t think you are likely to pick up a weapon and use it on someone ever again I will step away from custody.”