Man assaults girlfriend over suspected Facebook affair with Mitt Romney

A Tennessee man was recently arrested after he allegedly assaulted his live-in girlfriend because he became suspicious that she was planning an affair with presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.

Lowell Turpin, 40, confronted his girlfriend earlier this month when he saw a photo of a man who he did not recognize on her Facebook page, according to a police report obtained by The Smoking Gun.

"Mr. Turpin saw a picture of an unknown (to him) male on Ms. [Crystal] Gray's Facebook page, and angrily demanded to know who the male was," Anderson County Sheriff Deputy Bradley Prewitt wrote.

Gray explained that the picture was of Romney, but Turpin became angrier and started "smashing the laptop against the wall" when he suspected that she was trying to communicate with her friends through Facebook.

At that point, Turpin struck Gray "about the right side of her face, near her mouth, with a closed fist," the report said.

Gray also told Prewitt that she had been repeatedly abused by Turpin, with the most recent incident occurring about a week and a half earlier. She had even fled to a battered women's shelter while the couple was living in South Carolina.

Turpin was arrested on domestic assault charges in connection with incident on July 22. He remained in the Anderson County Jail as of Monday.

Photo: Anderson County Sheriff's Office.

(h/t: Gawker)