Nigel Mark Howes, 39, assaulted his wife Elizabeth outside Harry’s Bar. It was witnessed by the bar manager and a restaurant manager who works nearby.
Wakefield magistrates heard how the couple had been under pressure over money troubles on Januar
y 4, the day of the incident. They went for a drink at the bar off Smyth Street but argued.
The court heard Mrs Howes left and expected her husband to follow. She went back and found Howes in the beer garden. She slapped him twice across the face after he said in a sarcastic manner: “I’ll give you £20.”
Prosecutor Marie Austin-Walsh said Howes pointed to his right cheek and asked her to try that side.
In a statement Mrs Howes said: “He threw me against the adjoining wall and grabbed me round the throat by his left hand. I couldn’t breathe and was choking. He could see that I was struggling because I was going red in the face and I couldn’t move.
“He changed his grip and went for my hair.”
The court heard she was thrown against a hedge and someone intervened. Howes, of Cypress Street, St John’s, pleaded guilty to assault.
Howes disputed a witness account that he had punched his wife. He accepted he may have unintentionally pulled her hair and caused some of her injuries. She banged her head, causing lumps.
Magistrates agreed to sentence him on his version of events. But chairman of the bench Lorraine Jeffrey said it was a serious case and adjourned for a pre-sentence report looking at all options.
The full article contains 289 words and appears in Wakefield Express City newspaper.
