A Sandbanks property developer has been cleared of strangling his estranged wife during an argument about their divorce at their £3 million home in Poole, Dorset.
Paul Pressland, 63, was found not guilty at Salisbury Crown Court after a jury deliberated for about an hour. He said he was relieved by the verdict but that there had been “no winners” in the case.
Mr Pressland had denied squeezing Gemma Martin’s neck during the dispute on December 1, 2024. Prosecutors alleged that he punched her in the ribs, pinned her against a door and continued to squeeze her throat until her eyes “bulged” before she fell to the floor.
Ms Martin told the court that she could not breathe and felt her head spinning during the alleged attack. She said: “I just thought ‘this is it’. I felt overpowered.”
Mr Pressland maintained that he had acted in self-defence. He said his wife struck him with a slipper and then with her fists before grabbing his hair during a struggle in their en-suite bathroom.
The couple had hosted Ms Martin’s parents for an early Christmas meal before they left for a three-month trip to Thailand. Mr Pressland said he had drunk “a glass or two” of wine while preparing the roast, with five bottles consumed by six people over about five hours.
He claimed that Ms Martin, whom he described as “Amazonian”, entered the en-suite and began calling him names before attacking him. He said the pair “tussled” and “bounced off the walls” before ending up on the floor.
Mr Pressland said a bruise on his wife’s back could have been caused when she was pushed against a door handle. He also suggested that red marks on her neck may have been caused by a wetsuit she had worn during a charity swim earlier that day.
He told the court: “I didn’t use excessive force, I did what I felt was necessary to placate the situation and defend myself against somebody who was attacking me.”
The case arose against the backdrop of the couple’s divorce. They began their relationship in 2014 and married in 2022, while the jury heard that Ms Martin had sought a divorce on the grounds of adultery in 2024.
The court was also told that Ms Martin had written a list of what she wanted from the divorce, including a £1 million home, an annual salary of £60,000, a £35,000 Range Rover and vehicles for her two sons.
After being cleared, Mr Pressland said he was sorry for what everyone had endured, “in particular my ex-stepsons”. He added: “But you have to put your faith in the jury system to find the truth.”
