A MAN who launched a ‘sustained and ferocious’ attack on his wife as her young children looked on has been jailed for two-and-a-half years.

Judge Roger Jarvis condemned the ‘shocking’ violence displayed by Steven Jon Carpenter, 31, against his wife on the night of August 31 when he appeared at Dorchester Crown Court to be sentenced for a charge of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

Carolyn Branford-Wood said Carpenter, of Victoria Road, Dorchester, was in the kitchen with his wife and her three children, aged between seven and 11, when he began making ‘unpleasant remarks’ towards her and became violent.

She said Carpenter lunged towards her and grabbed her neck before forcing her to the floor.

Miss Branford-Wood added: “He then pulled her up by the neck and pulled her into the bathroom and locked the bathroom door.”

She said after grabbing her by the throat again and forced her to the floor he then momentarily appeared to calm down as he went back into the kitchen.

He then grabbed her again and struck her to the face, after which Mrs Carpenter ran out of the house and banged on the neighbours’ door.

Before they could answer Carpenter arrived and began dragging her back towards their house as witnesses looked on.

Miss Branford-Wood said he then punched her in the right eye and began banging her face into a pillar outside the house.

She added: “All three boys were standing by the front door.”

A member of the public called the police but by the time they arrived at the scene Carpenter had fled.

He phoned the police at 2am the following day to hand himself in.

Miss Branford-Wood said that Carpenter had two previous convictions for violent offences towards women.

Tim Bradbury, mitigating, said that – while Carpenter did not seek to excuse his behaviour there had been background issues between the pair that had culminated in the violence that night. He added that this had been the first time he had been violent towards his wife in this particular relationship and she had declared the relationship over as a result.

Judge Jarvis said: “This incident was shocking so far as Mrs Carpenter is concerned, it is plain that she was vulnerable.

“It was a sustained and ferocious attack upon your wife.”

The judge also criticised Carpenter for using violence in the presence of the three children and condemned his previous violence towards women.

He said: “In my judgement the time has now come for you to realise that the way you treat women is utterly unacceptable.”