Last updated at 16:45, Thursday, 09 August 2012

A HUSBAND who attacked his wife in front of their two young daughters has avoided jail.

Charlotte Jones shouted to her children to call the police as they watched their dad drag her across a room by her hair, Furness Magistrates’ Court heard yesterday.

The incident was born out of John Paul Jones’ jealousy of his wife’s work as a carer, leading her to spend more time with others than with him, the prosecution said.

The 40-year-old, of Lime Tree Road, Ulverston, pleaded guilty to assault by beating.

Prosecutor Mrs Lisa Hine said officers were called to the couple’s home at around 4.15pm on July 15.

The defendant told them he had had an argument with his wife and she had left the house, giving the police her number so they could find her.

When they went to her Mrs Jones told the police her husband had struck her arms as she tried to protect her head, and she had a headache from him pulling her hair.

Both their daughters, who are 12 and four, witnessed the incident.

Mrs Jones refused to give a statement, so the conviction was made entirely on her husband’s admission.

In interview, the defendant said he was under considerable pressure because he was not working and his wife was working long hours to make up for it.

That day she had asked him to feed the children and he had taken offence to being “ordered about”.

During the resulting argument, the defendant said, his wife had been pointing in his face, and it was then he used force to sweep her arms away.

He then pushed her into the front dining room and dragged her across the room by her hair. He also picked up a dining room chair and smashed it on the floor.

His wife fled with the children, who watched the incident from the hall, in order to escape him. Mr Graham Jackson, defending, said the defendant had reconciled with Mrs Jones following the assault.

He said: “There are two children at home and that, from Mr Jones’ point of view, is of course the motivating factor in putting right that that has gone wrong.”

The defendant was sentenced to three months in prison, suspended for 12 months, subject to requirements he has 12 months’ supervision and does 150 hours’ unpaid work.

Presiding magistrate, Alison Spurgeon-Dickson, said: “This offence occurred after you had completed a domestic violence programme for a previous offence. It also occurred in front of your children and this is totally unacceptable.”

First published at 16:30, Thursday, 09 August 2012
Published by http://www.nwemail.co.uk