A HUSBAND accused of abusing his cancer-stricken senior Interpol police officer wife used her critical illness payment money to clear his gambling debts, Greenock Sheriff Court has heard.

Businessman Russell Laing racked up a betting bill of more than £40,000 before plundering cash which had been awarded to his spouse to help relieve financial pressures during her illness, a trial was told.

His now estranged wife said that Laing claimed he was 'entitled' to the money because he had 'bankrolled' her hospital treatment through his business's medical insurance.

The woman, 50 — a Police Scotland detective inspector seconded to Interpol in France — told the court: "He told me I'd not supported him enough through my illness.

"I don't think I'll ever recover from that statement."

Laing is accused of abusive, coercive and controlling behaviour against his wife during their 19-year marriage in Inverclyde and elsewhere.

The alleged victim — who underwent two lumpectomy operations in 2017 — described Laing as 'insecure' and 'jealous' and said he was 'raging' following a joke suggesting that she could have been a Rangers 'WAG'.

She said an incident arose on Christmas Day 2015 when Laing and her brother-in-law were discussing a prospective new manager of the Ibrox club.

The woman — giving evidence from behind screens — told the court: "I dated the potential manager when I was around 16 or 17 and my sister said, 'Just think, sis, you could've been a WAG'.

"I nudged her because I knew if Russell had heard that he would have been furious.

"He left the room and was sitting on the stairs, bent over with his head in his hands and was rocking backwards and forwards — a bit like a madman."

She said that Laing quizzed her for hours through the night and into Christmas Eve 2018 after learning that her friend had 'chatted up' a taxi driver who had taken them to a girls night concert in Glasgow around two weeks earlier.

The woman told the court: "His face was like thunder. I was made to go through the story again and again and again.

"He asked me if I'd offered the driver sexual favours."

She added: "He was obsessed with the fact that I was not providing him with enough sex, so I must have been providing it to someone else.

"After cancer your body changes. I did not feel attractive and did not feel like having sex, and that was thrown back at me so many times."

Laing's wife told the court that he left her 'tired, broken and upset'.

She said that Laing went through her travel bag after she had returned home from a national covert policing conference in England in 2016.

The woman told the court: "He referred to an item of female underwear and asked why it was in the bag and why I thought it appropriate to wear them when I was away with work.

"He said that I must have put on a really good show when I was away.

"I was immediately humiliated and put on the defensive because I knew what path this would take.

"I think he actually told me I was disgusting."

Laing's wife said he backed her up against a fridge freezer and placed his hand around her throat for around two minutes.

She added: "It was so he could hold me there and tell me exactly what he was thinking.

"I'm petrified, so upset and I think I'm actually crying at this point."

Asked by prosecutor Kavin Ryan-Hume why she didn't tell anyone before confiding in her sister in 2018, the detective inspector replied: "I was completely embarrassed and I loved Russell and didn't want anyone to judge him."

The trial, before Sheriff James Varney, has been adjourned part-heard until January 30.