A PENSIONER who battered his wife with a coffee table leg in an argument about his dinner has been spared a jail sentence after the victim begged a judge to allow him home.

Raymond Foan unscrewed the leg of the table and used the thick end to hit his wife Marie about the head so violently that he broke her nose.

He threw his plate of food and some water at her, punched her in the face, and left her collapsed on the floor of their home in Crediton.

She called for an ambulance and when police arrived, he threatened to run out of the house and jump under a passing lorry.

He is aged 74 and she is aged 77 and they have been married for almost 50 years.

They have been forced to live apart since the attack on March 6 this year but Mrs Foan wrote to a judge to say she wants him home.

She got her wish when he walked free from Exeter Crown Court with a suspended sentence and a warning from Judge Timothy Rose that he would go inside if he ever touches her again.

Foan, of Exeter Road, Crediton, admitted assault causing actual bodily harm and was jailed for eight months, suspended for two years, and ordered to attend a Building Better Relationships course and 10 days of rehabilitation activities.

The judge told him:"What you did to your wife after 47 and-a-half-years of marriage was a really serious, violent and dangerous assault because you armed yourself with a weapon.

“You set about her with a table leg and caused a variety of injuries, primarily around the head, which is the most dangerous place to attack someone.

“I have read the letter from your wife and I also have to balance some positive qualities which I have been told about as well. It is particularly unfortunate for a man of 74 with no previous convictions to come before the court.”

Mr Nigel Hall, prosecuting, said the attack happened at about 8pm and was reported to police by paramedics, who responded to a 999 call but were unable to get access to the victim.

She was found by police on the floor of a room leading off the kitchen with blood coming from a head wound and serious bleeding.

She said he had hit her with a table leg and thrown a tray of food and some water at her. She refused to make a formal complaint. He said he had tripped over a table and landed on her while carrying his dinner.

Miss Kelly Scrivener, defending, said Foan and his wife have been kept apart by bail conditions for four months but she has written a letter asking for him to come home.

She said Mrs Foan had come to court and was waiting outside in the hope of being reunited.

He has started receiving proper treatment for mental health issues in the meantime and has reduced his drinking. He suffers from poor mobility and gout and would be highly vulnerable in jail.

by Court Reporter