AN angry husband who attacked his wife in a fit of rage, has been sentenced to a community rehabilitation order to run for a year.

A condition will be that Bushey man Raymond Ivens attends regular weekly group sessions for perpetrators of domestic violence and to help them control their temper.

But St Albans Crown Court was told on Friday, October 26, that the sessions have come too late to save his own marriage when 44-year-old Ivens appeared for sentence on a charge of common assault and affray.

The court heard the background to the offences was domestic strife between him and mother of three Michelle, which resulted in police going to see her at a neighbour's home in Herne Road, Bushey, on Friday, May 11.

There, she told officers how her husband had attacked her earlier that morning.

In tears, she told them it happened after she had asked him if it would be alright to keep two of their children off school because they were unwell.

Moments later, she said as she was making a phone call to a friend, he yelled at her: "Put the phone down" and ordered the frightened youngsters upstairs.

Later, the wife was sitting downstairs once more on a sofa with her arm around one of the children, when Ivens punched her in the arm and kicked her.

She ran upstairs with her children and, moments later, the defendant burst into the bedroom where all three were, having grabbed a knife from the kitchen.

He told his wife: "I am going to finish you off, you slag".

Police arrested the husband back at their house in Herne Road and he admitted hitting his wife.

Mr Warwick Aleeson, defending, said: "He accepts his behaviour was deplorable and utterly inexcusable. he has effectively lost his family."

The barrister said Mrs Ivens wanted nothing more to do with her husband, although he would maintain a relationship with their three children.

Recorder Simon Brown sentenced Ivens to a community rehabilitation order to run for a year on each of the counts concurrent.

October 30, 2001 15:30