The wife of an MP turned up at her doctor's surgery "so badly battered" the sight in one of her eyes was in danger, the Court of Session has heard.

Family doctor Leslie Quinn was giving evidence before Lord Johnston in a defamation case brought by the Glasgow Bailliston MP Jimmy Wray.

Dr Quinn said he was shocked and surprised when Catherine Wray took off her sunglasses and showed him the injuries. He made immediate arragements for her to be treated in hospital.

And, said the GP, Ms Wray blamed her then husband for the injury, which happened in February 1990.

MP denies violence

Giving evidence, Mr Wray described his ex-wife as a "pathological liar" whose hard drinking embarrassed and humiliated him throughout their marriage.

He denied allegations that he hit her during the 10 years they were together.

Mr Wray is suing Associated Newspapers for £1.5m over a front-page story in the Mail on Sunday two years ago which accused him of being a wife-beater.

He claims the story, for which his ex-wife said she was paid £25,500, defamed him and damaged his standing as an MP.

The publishers are contesting the action, insisting the story was true.

Surgery visits

On the third day of the hearing, Associated Newspapers' lawyer, John Mitchell QC, questioned Dr Quinn, of Newton Mearns, about Ms Wray's visits to his surgery during the years of her marriage.

She was prescribed tranquillisers for depression and, on one occasion, blamed a sore neck on being "grabbed by the throat".

Dr Quinn went on to describe an incident in February 1990 when Ms Wray told him she had been hit by a hand or fist.

"She was being led down the corridor by another lady because she was distressed and she was sort of holding the wall. I have a very vivid recollection of that.

"She was so upset she couldn't come by herself. She was distressed and she was embarrassed."

Dr Quinn said he was surprised and concerned that she could lose her right eye.

'Looking into blackness'

"She was so badly battered. I thought: 'My goodness, what is this.'"

The doctor told how he tried to look into the eye with his hand-held instrument but found it impossible. "I was just looking into blackness," he added.

Ms Wray spent four days in Glasgow's Gartnavel General Hospital, the court heard.

The doctor said Ms Wray said her husband had assaulted her. "I haven't written it down because I was disbelieving of this and I had no corroborative evidence."

But he told the court the injury was "certainly compatible" with being struck.

Earlier Lord Johnston has heard that Mr Wray claimed his wife hit her face on a bedside cabinet while trying to get out of bed when she was drunk.

The hearing continues.