A former Olympic athlete accused of controlling and coercive behaviour towards his wife told police "it was the other way round" and she was the one who was physically and verbally abusive, a court has heard.

Curtis Robb, 54, who competed for Great Britain in the 800m at both the 1992 and 1996 Games, is accused of assaulting and threatening Sarah Robb, 47, and also of calling the GP names and subjecting her to "constant criticism" between December 2015 and August 2023.

The prosecution said the two medics appeared to be a "happy and successful couple" but orthopaedic surgeon Robb had a "dark side" and was physically violent and cruel.

Sarah Robb reported her husband to police in October 2023.

Chester Crown Court also heard that Robb allegedly held a pillow over her face during a row while on a family holiday six months earlier.

When interviewed, Robb told detectives: "I completely refute these allegations against me. I have never been controlling or coercive in my life.

"I would not want that for a family relationship and I would not want my family to be exposed to that sort of behaviour.

"To be honest with you, the controlling and coercive behaviour has been the other way round.

"My wife is never happy, which is why we are in this scenario."

The court heard the couple met as junior doctors in Sheffield before they married in 2010 and went on to have three children.

Robb also told police: "I have been treated very badly but as long as the children are fine I don't mind because I can put up with a lot of stuff.

"Ever since the children have been little she has had a mental problem where she will not let me have the children on my own.

"It is embarrassing that I have been hit by my wife.

"I would describe myself as a very passive person."

He said he had never assaulted his wife and it was she who would regularly "come at me and starting hitting me".

Robb described how he would sleep in a spare room ahead of undertaking operations the next morning but on "multiple occasions" she would come in during the middle of the night, turn the lights on, throw off the bed covers and had even thrown water over him.

Robb said: "I have had to suffer verbal and physical abuse.

"I am mentally and physically tough to withstand the abuse from Sarah but the situation has affected me, particularly with my relationship and access to my children."

Robb suggested that his wife had tried to alienate him from his children and his own family.

He denied trying to suffocate her while on holiday in the Lake District in April 2023 after a row over him using an electric toothbrush when she said she was trying to get to sleep.

When asked if he had put a pillow over her face, Robb replied: "Have I heck. She remonstrated with me, I pushed her back.

"I threw a pillow at her but no way did I smother her with a pillow. Absolutely not."

He also denied punching her arm during the same incident.

Asked to explain redness on her arm which was captured in a photograph she had taken shortly afterwards, Robb said: "That's only because I held her back as she was trying to hit me."

Giving evidence, Liverpool-born Robb was asked by his barrister Martine Snowdon: "Did you ever criticise Sarah as a mother or tell her that she could not cope?"

Snowdon then asked: "Did you think she could cope as a mother?"

Robb replied: "That's one of the reasons I married her."

He also denied he had criticised his wife professionally and told the jury she was a "good doctor".

Sarah Robb previously described an incident when she was pregnant in which she said her husband had punched her on the arm and in the side while he was driving following an argument.

Robb labelled this accusation as "despicable".

He told the court: "I remember her hitting me as I was driving."

The consultant, based at Warrington Hospital and from Northwich in Cheshire, was suspended from patient-facing duties after he was charged in April 2025.

Robb, who denies all of the allegations against him, will continue to give evidence on Monday.