Vicar found not guilty of attacking fiancée in a boozy lockdown brawl

A VICAR was yesterday cleared of assaulting her fiancée in a boozy lockdown brawl. Rev Michelle Bailey, 54, is said to have left Diane Shore, 56, with her right ear detached, two black eyes and a split nose. But Rev Bailey said she was assaulted at her lover’s bungalow in May 2020 and that bruises […]

A VICAR was yesterday cleared of assaulting her fiancée in a boozy lockdown brawl.

Rev Michelle Bailey, 54, is said to have left Diane Shore, 56, with her right ear detached, two black eyes and a split nose.

But Rev Bailey said she was assaulted at her lover’s bungalow in May 2020 and that bruises on Miss Shore were from her protecting herself.

The vicar said she had poured away Miss Shore’s third bottle of wine.

She said: “Diane grabbed me by the neck and pulled my hair and pushed me against a wall.”

Miss Shore said she had been punched in the face and bitten on the arm at her Stoke home.

But North Staffs justice centre chair of the bench Marcus Waite, said: “Miss Bailey’s evidence remained closer to events.”

She was also cleared of criminal damage.

The mum-of-three previously caused a stir in her former parish after leaving her husband for a female bull-breeder.

In a blistering sermon at her former church St Michael and All Angels, in Stewkley, Bucks, she accused her parishioners of breaking up her marriage to husband Michael Morton.

She slammed congregants for “poisonous gossip” after rumours swirled about an alleged relationship with stetson-wearing Michele Wild, who she moved in with in 2009.