A MAN who pinned his ex-wife down on a bed, spat at her and punched her in the face has been handed a suspended prison sentence and a restraining order.

Andrew Millward of Windmill Hill, Arrow Lane, North Littleton, near Evesham, appeared at Worcester Magistrates Court after previously admitting assaulting his exwife on Sunday, March 8.

The court was told the couple had been together for 22 years and married for 19 and had three children aged 15, 19 and 21 but split up five years ago, although they remained living in the same house.

Prosecutor Owen Beale said the woman had gone out with friends on Saturday, March 7, and when she came home in the early hours of Sunday there was an “altercation”.

He said 50-year-old Millward grabbed her by her hair and pinned her down on the bed before spitting and punching her in the face.

“He felt he had not been told the truth about where she had been,” he said.

Mr Beale added the woman had called one of the friends she had been out with and asked her to tell Millward she was telling him the truth, but he refused to believe her.

He said the defendant had gone out drinking the next day and when he returned to the house his ex-wife called the police. He pretended to be asleep in the garden, but was quickly arrested.

Gary Harper, defending, said Millward had expressed “genuine remorse”

for his behaviour and had pleaded guilty to prevent his family from having to go through a trial.

Sentencing Millward to 12 weeks in prison, suspended for one year, District Judge Nigel Cadbury said: “She was in a very vulnerable situation indeed.”

He also handed Millward a two-year restraining order forbidding him from contacting his ex-wife or her friend except through a solicitor, third party or family court to arrange contact with their children or the sale of their home.

He is also banned from contacting his ex-wife’s friend as well as entering Arrow Lane and was ordered to carry out 20 days of alcohol treatment and another 20 days of rehabilitation.

Millward was also ordered to pay £85 costs and an £80 victim surcharge.