A father whose wife was allegedly kicked and punched in a row over buggy space on a bus thought she was dead after the alleged assault, a court heard.

Wayne McCatty, 35, denied causing Nova Whiting-Willett actual bodily harm and assaulting her husband Anders on the 85 bus on Kingston Hill on Sunday, September 19, 2010.

Mr Whiting-Willett told Kingston Crown Court yesterday, Wednesday, August 31, Mr McCatty made abusive comments about his wife’s weight and appearance after she said she could not make room for his pushchair.

He said when he asked Mr McCatty to stop, he asked him whether his wife beat him.

He said he intervened again when Mr McCatty attacked his wife after pulling her to the floor.

He said: “I managed to pull him away briefly and I was punched and pushed towards the front of the bus.

“I went to grab him again because he was pulling at my wife’s back, pushing her head to the floor while punching her in the head.

“My daughter was absolutely hysterical. I did not know if she had been injured.

“He lifted my wife’s arm to punch her in the abdomen.

“At this point I thought my wife was dead. She was not moving. I was shouting for someone to call the police.”

He denied defence lawyer Tanoo Mylvaganam’s claim he was exaggerating the incident to back up his wife.

Earlier, Mrs Whiting-Willett angrily denied she had been the aggressor or had made racist comments about Mr McCatty.

She denied she “completely lost it” after Mr McCatty said: “I suppose you think I’m a Mars bar. Are you going to eat me?”

Ms Mylvaganam said: “It was your act of aggression. It was you who clenched your fist and you went at him and you hit him.

“He pushed you back.

“At the point he pushed you the bus is going down a hill and you both fall over. You hit the ground.

“You get up in an aggressive state and he tries to push you.”

Mrs Whiting-Willett broke down in hysterics when asked to view CCTV footage of the incident, and had to be helped from the court room.

After hearing Mrs Whiting-Willett was planning legal action against the bus company, the defence accused her of lying and exaggerating the incident.

The defence also claimed no-one on the bus tried to intervene or call the police because they saw Mrs Whiting-Willett was the aggressor.

Ms Mylvaganam said: “The fact is you are capable of being very manipulative when it suits you, and you have the ability to twist any set of circumstances to your advantage.

“I suggest that is exactly what you have done on this occasion. You have turned your bad behaviour into something that has given you victim status.”

In response, Mrs Whiting-Willett said: “I spent my birthday and wedding anniversary in bed not even able to move. I thought I was going to die. He said he was going to kill me.”

The trial continues.