The wife of ex-motorcycle stunt rider Eddie Kidd was today jailed for five months for assaulting her paralysed and severely brain-damaged husband.
Former stripper Samantha Kidd, 44, was led away from the dock at Brighton magistrates court, East Sussex, in handcuffs after being told she would serve at least half of her sentence in jail.
Mrs Kidd had previously admitted four counts of assault by beating of the 54-year-old wheelchair-bound star who needs 24-hour-care after a motorcycle crash 17 years ago.
The court heard how unemployed Kidd had kicked and slapped her husband, punched him in the chest, and called him a ‘f****** spastic.’
One another occasion a carer walked into Mr Kidd’s bedroom at his home in Peacehaven, East Sussex, to find his wife with both her hands around his throat, throttling him.
Jailing Kidd, district judge William Ashworth described her actions as an “‘abuse of trust and power.”
Jailed: Samantha Kidd
The court heard Mr Kidd, left severely disabled when a stunt went wrong in August 1996, was left shaking and “absolutely hysterical” by his wife’s attacks.
Prosecutor Ms Soros told the court that in one incident Kidd rained a series of blows on him after she was woken up in the middle of the night, according to a witness.
Kidd told him: “For f***’s sake, Eddie. How do you expect me to sleep?”
Ms Soros said Kidd then continued with “a barrage of abuse and swearing” before launching a quick succession of half a dozen blows to his face and head.
The witness said in a statement that Kidd appeared to have “lost the plot” and had to be forced off him.
Ms Soros said Mr Kidd “was completely unable to defend himself from the attack from Sam or take any action to protect his face or head.”
On another occasion, Ms Soros said Kidd kicked Mr Kidd in retaliation after a carer had difficulty helping him out of a car and into a wheelchair.
She also slapped his chest and called him a “f****** spastic”, a remark she claimed was what he referred to himself as, the court was told.
Ms Soros said: “The slap was described by the witness as being very aggressive to Mr Kidd’s chest.”
In a separate incident, the court heard Kidd slapped Mr Kidd’s face in “retaliation and frustration” at his hand coming off a rail and coming into contact with her.
Ms Soros said: “In hindsight, she accepts that her view of that had been distorted by her stress and alcohol consumption at the time.”
But on another occasion a carer heard Mr Kidd call out to them, and found Kidd with her hands round the front of his throat.
The witness yelled out: “What the f*** do you think you’re doing?”, the court heard.
The carer, who was not named, told how she was forced to pull Kidd off her husband with all her body weight to stop the attack.
She described Mr Kidd as being “absolutely hysterical”, Ms Soros said.
Alissa Scott-Beckett, defending, told the court that Kidd had struggled to cope with her husband’s worsening physical state and had started drinking heavily to cope with what was a “volatile and difficult relationship.”Eddie KiddView gallery
Ms Scott-Beckett added “She found herself in a coping strategy of excessive alcohol consumption.
“That is now thankfully under control but that is the way she felt she was able to cope with the situation.”
Ms Scott-Beckett said the situation had been brought about by the “circumstances of the relationship” and Kidd’s inability to cope.
She added: “Mrs Kidd has suffered from considerable mental anguish. She apologises profusely to any mental stress this has caused him.”
Passing a sentence of five months on each count of assault to run concurrently, the judge said: “These four assaults on Eddie Kidd represent a pattern of violent behaviour towards your husband which, taken together, are in the highest bracket for sentencing guidelines because your husband was particularly vulnerable and due to the repeated assaults on a disabled person.”
“Whatever you felt about his disability, you didn’t shy away from raining six punches on him or slapping, kicking and throttling him so much that you had to be pulled off him.”
The judge also imposed a restraining order on Kidd, from Seaford, East Sussex, preventing her from contacting her husband.
None of Mr Kidd’s family were in court to see his wife jailed. His mother Marjorie Kidd is currently looking after him at his adapted bungalow.
Today Mr Kidd’s sister Christine Morris said: “We don’t want to say anything at this time.
The stunt rider married his current wife – then known as Samantha Kirli – in 2007.
It is believed that the couple are in the process of divorcing.
Despite his disabilities, Mr Kidd completed the London Marathon in 50 days in 2011.
At the height of his career, Eddie Kidd toured the world and worked as a stuntman in a series of James Bond films, doubling for stars like Michael Caine and Roger Moore.
