Man behind viral 'optical illusion dress' charged with attempted murder of his wife

Keir Johnston appeared at the High Court in Glasgow on Monday after being charged with the attempted murder of his wife, Grace. (Image: Grace MacPhee/Facebook, Caitlin McNeil/Tumblr)

Imagine this. It is a random day back in 2015. You are scrolling on the internet and suddenly you encounter a normal-looking dress. However, soon everybody is talking about it and it has literally broken the internet. While some people saw the dress as “black and blue”, others thought that it was “gold and white”.

The optical illusion dress belonged to a Scottish man’s mother-in-law. Keir Johnston, 38, rose to fame soon after the picture went insanely viral. And now, he has been accused of trying to murder his wife. Yes, you read that right.

As per a report in the New York Post, Johnston appeared at the High Court in Glasgow on Monday after being charged with the attempted murder of his wife, Grace Johnston. He had also allegedly committed an 11-year campaign of domestic violence acts and coercive control against Grace, which allegedly led to him trying to kill her last March by pinning her to the ground and compressing her neck.

Johnston denied all the accusation including the one that mentioned he repeatedly assaulted his wife at their home before taking out a knife and attempting to strangle her. Other accusations include allegedly pushing Grace against a wall, shouting at her and throttling her between April 2019 and March 2022.

It was also alleged that he tried to get into a vehicle his wife was in and hit her through an open window. In another incident, he put his wife in a headlock and dragged her out of a pub after she refused to leave with him, according to the New York Post.

Johnston is also accused of isolating Grace from her friends and family, as well as monitoring her money to decide how much of it she could have access to.

The couple became a sensation after the viral dress debate sent the internet into a tizzy. They also appeared on the “Ellen DeGeneres Show”. DeGeneres gave the couple a $10,000 cheque as well as a trip to the Caribbean. According to the New York Post, the attempted murder case will get a preliminary hearing before a trial in 2024.