Overview
- A jury at Chester Crown Court cleared Curtis Robb of two charges, which on Wednesday returned a majority verdict on the controlling and coercive behaviour count and a unanimous verdict on the suffocation allegation.
- Judge Simon Berkson discharged Robb after the verdict and ordered that he be paid legal aid costs.
- Prosecutors had said Robb subjected his wife to a pattern of name-calling, criticism and physical episodes between December 2015 and August 2023, and that an Easter 2023 holiday row in the Lake District culminated in an alleged pillow attack that left the complainant fearing she would die.
- Robb denied attempting to suffocate his wife, accepted throwing a pillow during the dispute but said he did not place it over her face, and was suspended from patient-facing duties at Warrington Hospital after charges were brought in April 2025.
- Both parties are medically qualified, met as junior doctors and have three children, and the case’s high public profile may have lasting effects on their professional reputations and any future civil or workplace reviews, for which no outcome has yet been reported.