Military wife ordered her senior Army husband to punch colleague

Military wife ordered her senior Army husband to punch a colleague in the face leaving him with a fractured eye socket after he criticised them for buying an underage teenager alcohol

• Mother-of-four Lyanne Porch took offence to comment made by Michael Gilroy
• She instructed husband Staff Sergeant Gareth Porch to assault Warrant Officer

A military wife ordered her senior soldier husband to punch a colleague in the face after he criticised them for buying alcohol for an underage teenager, a military court has heard.

Staff Sergeant Gareth Porch, 42, punched Warrant Officer Michael Gilroy in the face following instructions from his partner during a ‘disgraceful’ episode of ‘unwanted violence’ outside a pub in Limassol, Cyprus.

WO Gilroy was struck so hard that he was left fearing he was going to lose his sight and never see his unborn child.

SSgt Porch was today found guilty of five counts of battery and a single count of GBH at Bulford Military Court in Wiltshire. 

Ssgt Gareth Porch pictured outside Bulford Military Court Centre in Wiltshire earlier today, where he was sentenced to two years’ detention in a military corrective training centre

Mother-of-four Lyanne Porch, who instructed her husband to carry out the assault, was convicted of battery and handed a 12-week suspended prison sentence

He was sentenced to two years’ detention in a military corrective training centre.

His wife, mother-of-four Lyanne, 40, who had instructed him to carry out the assault, was convicted of battery and handed a 12-week suspended prison sentence.

The court earlier heard that SSgt Porch, of the Royal Logistics Corps, had been drinking with his wife in the Arkotiri Arms pub in Limassol – popular with British service personnel serving in Cyprus.

Mrs Porch took offence to a comment made by WO2 Gilroy about them buying drinks for an underage teenager in the pub, before shouting abuse at him.

When SSgt Porch found out his wife had been ‘offended’, he went after who he thought had been responsible, but mistakenly assaulted Sgt James Quin with two punches in the street.

After his wife directed him to the correct man, he then also pushed WO2 Gilroy to the ground.

The Warrant Officer, whose own wife was four months pregnant at the time, tried to get up from the ground but Mrs Porch, who worked in a coffee shop at an RAF base on the island, pushed him back down.

SSgt Porch then punched WO2 Gilroy in the face, fracturing his eye socket and leaving him ‘bleeding from the ear’.

WO2 Gilroy received medical help from onlookers, while SSgt Porch stood by and ‘did nothing’.

SSgt Porch, of the Royal Logistics Corps, had been drinking with his wife in the Arkotiri Arms pub in Limassol on the night of the incident

The victim spent two days in hospital, with doctors warning he was at risk of losing his sight.

In a statement, WO2 Gilroy said the assault had led him to the decision to retire from the British Army because he no longer felt the it could ‘provide a safe environment’ for him and his family.

Assistant Judge Advocate Jane England told SSgt Porch and Mrs Porch that the evening had become a ‘disgraceful incident from beginning to end’.

She said: ‘You went out [drinking]. Mrs Porch took offence to a comment made by WO2 Michael Gilroy about children drinking, which he thought was wrong.

‘She shouted abuse at him, and then both WO2 Gilroy and Sergeant Quin left the bar. SSgt Porch found out that WO2 Gilroy had offended his wife, and launched into a period of unwanted violence.

‘Neither man offered violence towards you. You punched Sgt Quin in the face on two separate occasions. After that, Mrs Porch directed you to the right man to be punched.

‘[SSgt Porch] pushed him to the floor, [as he was getting up] Mrs Porch pushed him back down. [SSgt Porch] punched him again further along the road… which knocked him unconscious and fractured his eye socket.

Assistant Judge Advocate Jane England told SSgt Porch and Mrs Porch that the evening had become a ‘disgraceful incident from beginning to end’

‘[Passers by] stemmed the bleeding with their own clothes and checked his pulse. Despite having medical training, you stood by and did nothing to help. You could have killed him.

‘He spent two nights in hospital and was told he could lose his sight. His wife was four months pregnant at the time of the assault, and he was worried he might never be able to see his child.’

SSgt Porch also punched a 17-year-old girl the same evening after intervening to separate a separate altercation between two women.

The judge added: ‘This was a disgraceful incident from beginning to end.

‘Mrs Porch was the catalyst and direct instigator of the assaults… for no good reason at all.’

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